Private or Public Cloud? Cloud Security Options
Private or Public Cloud? A Comparison for the Financial Services Industry
Financial services companies increasingly leverage the cloud to analyze data, run applications, create disaster recovery plans, and more. The question for many firms is no longer whether or not to use the cloud, but whether to use private or public cloud solutions.
In many cases, the answer to this question ties into cloud security for financial services. Due to the sensitive nature of financial data and regulatory requirements around storing and securing that data, financial services companies need to assess whether private or public cloud solutions can provide sufficient protection while still delivering enough flexibility and cost-efficiency.
The Importance of Encryption
Considering the rise of cyberattacks, it’s not always practical to say that 100% of threats will be mitigated. Instead, cloud security for financial services is becoming a matter of limiting the fallout of potential data breaches.
That’s why encryption plays a significant role in cloud security for financial services. Firms need to ensure that sensitive data, like customers’ account information or proprietary investment analysis, is encrypted both in transit and at rest.
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When deciding whether to use private or public cloud services, financial services firms should consider two key areas of encryption:
- Encryption in Transit: This technology provides encryption of data that gets routed between data centers, end-users, and cloud providers, such as when a financial analyst pulls down investment data from a cloud provider.
With the public cloud, encryption in transit is the responsibility of the client, its Managed Servicer Provider, or cloud service providers. ChimeNet has been encrypting and securing clients’ data while in transit for over 20 years and can assist your company with secure access to and from public cloud services such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) or from private cloud providers.
Likewise, private cloud providers may also offer encryption in transit, and you may have more control over the specifics of this encryption. If your firm has its own private cloud infrastructure, you could set up your cloud environment with devices that provide a level of encryption you’re comfortable with. If you’re leveraging a private cloud through a third party, such as through a managed service providers’ data center, make sure that the provider offers encryption in transit.
- Encryption at Rest: Financial services companies also need to ensure they have encryption in rest if they’re storing data, like customers’ account information or proprietary investment analysis, within the cloud. That stored data should be encrypted to significantly reduce the damage that may come from a data breach.
Similar to the considerations for encryption in transit, financial services firms using public cloud services would likely be dependent on the encryption offered by a Managed Services or public cloud provider.
Leveraging Cisco HyperFlex for Cloud Security for Financial Services
Because of the importance of cloud security for financial services, organizations should look into the technology that public and private cloud providers use to assess whether they can provide sufficient encryption along with overall cloud functionality.
One technology option we recommend looking into is Cisco Hyperflex, which is a hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) system that has strong encryption and performance capabilities to store and process the large quantities of data used in financial services.
We use Cisco Hyperflex in our data center in order to offer a secure private cloud solution to financial services firms at an affordable, pay-as-you-go price. As a managed service provider, we can also help you assess other cloud options to find the best option for your firm.
References:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/hyperconverged-infrastructure/index.html