How Cloud-Native Security Supports Federal Modernization

The federal government has embraced the cloud to modernize capabilities and drive efficiency, which creates new opportunities and challenges. While the Federal Cloud Computing Strategy’s “cloud smart” approach urges government to focus on security and privacy, security delivered from the cloud remains a sticking point for many agencies. 

Legacy approaches to security aren’t keeping pace with efforts to modernize infrastructure. Most agencies have cobbled together an assortment of defenses, including secure web gateways, firewalls and cloud access security brokers (CASBs). Each of these tools has a role to play, but many IT teams find it difficult to manage a heterogeneous mix of solutions in the emerging IT environment where workers and applications are everywhere.

This leads to potential gaps at a time when bad actors increasingly view government systems and data as high-value targets. “Cloud requires a new security framework,” said Christina Hausman, Product Marketing Manager for Security at Cisco Systems. “When applications are no longer exclusively in a data center, and employees no longer gain access strictly from the office, agencies need to adopt a different approach.”

Agencies can look to a cloud-native cybersecurity platform to elevate the protection of mission-critical systems and sensitive data. Rather than extending on-premises security approaches into the cloud, they need a purpose-built solution to safeguard applications and data in this new environment: tools designed specifically to run in the cloud.

Delivered as-a-service, such a solution cuts through the present complexity, helping ensure agencies can meet their compliance obligations. A platform that brings together networking and security in a single service can help ensure cyber resilience in support of an increasingly hybrid government
workforce, a key goal for many agencies.

Read our new report, Cloud-Native Security Supports Federal Modernization, to learn more about these solutions in detail. You’ll also explore an overview of statistics describing the current state of cloud security challenges, key capabilities required for effective cloud-native security and three common federal government use cases.