Though easily understood as a Cloud-based service model, Security-as-a-Service also does imply to in-house security management provided by an external service provider. Going by Gartner’s prediction made in 2013, cloud-based security services market that involves web or email gateways, remote vulnerability assessment, identity and access management, event management and security information would be hitting $4.13 billion by 2017. That being said, it does make one wonder whether or not Security-as-a-Service works out to be a good idea.
As it is getting increasingly evident, the benefits of Security-as-a-Service are far more yielding than the risks involved. While many enterprises prefer Network Security Tools and IPS to be rather on-premise to monitor every information flowing in and out of networks, they also feel the pangs of latency, delay and cost. On the other hand, through Security-as-a-Service, enterprises can achieve:
- Constant updates on virus definitions that are beyond user compliance.
- Better expertise in Security Management.
- Resource augmentation by outsourced processes such as log monitoring that can free up in-house staff.
- Access advanced security tools with the cloud computing concept of economies of scale.
Apart from these broad advantages, there are several other services that can be achieved with Security-as-a-Service. For example, the problem of maintaining password confidentiality in Identity Management can be solved easily with robust options that can expedite user provisioning and provide single-sign-on capability.
Another important point to be noted here is that Security on the cloud works as poison-that-kills-poison. The best defenses from the Internet attacks that are generally cloud-based, are surprisingly found in the cloud. SaaS offers solutions that can veil web servers behind their own frontline servers, smartly disguising the targets from drive-by-attacks. There are also PCI DSS, web application firewalls, hidden DNS servers and other services under SaaS.
But as it is for any other security management method, SaaS has its own risks as well. To begin with, the service provider always has some access to internal data. Industries requiring high level of data confidentiality, such as, banking or healthcare, would be better off with internal solutions. Compliance is another concern that may not be addressed by Security-as-a-Service model. A lot therefore depends on the organization’s judgment on whether to adopt SaaS or not, and what to put on SaaS and what not. What we are witnessing in the industry, so far is a conducive trend for organizations of all sorts to adopt SaaS and reap the multiple benefits. We can look forward to a time where Security-as-a-Service evolves into a self-protective, ever-adaptive, truly secure environment for all.
Below are our offerings on Security as a Service:
ThreatVigil – On Demand Threat Management Solution
IdentityVigil – Identity and Access GovernanceÂ
ComplianceVigil – Compliance ManagementÂ
CyberVigil – Â Advance Threat Protection
Arnita is a former Happiest Mind and this content was created and published during her tenure.
