Pulsant: Hybrid Cloud Company Armors Its Defenses – Embraces Innovation to Improve Security Posture and Protect Clients – Case Study

In today’s business environment, security must be an integral consideration for all organisations. This is especially true for cloud and hosting businesses, where data security and compliance are vital to the reputation and trust they maintain with their clients.

With that in mind, a large technology service provider wanted to ensure that its infrastructure was properly secured. More than that, the company wanted to pass that same measure of defence on to its customers.

The company’s security team wanted to be sure the security protections it had in place represented state-of-the-art security capabilities, especially given the rapid technological changes taking place within the cloud and the cyber threat landscape.

The security team performed an audit of the industry and evaluated numerous cloud security solutions and vendors—despite having an incumbent security partner for the last seven years. This search for a new vendor was partly driven by customer demand, but also by the technology provider’s vision to make its operations more agile and attuned to the needs of its rapidly changing business and client base, particularly when it came to cost and complexity.

With GDPR readiness now the highest priority, using a vendor that has integrated compliance within the broader context of a strong security framework can help organisations accelerate their ability to meet the requirements of compliance regimens like PCI, ISO, or FCA.

“We gained a tremendous amount of both technical and commercial experience working with our incumbent security partner. But, as the industry moves on and the cyber threat landscape continues to evolve at a rapid pace, it is important for us to work with a partner who can match that evolution and continue to deliver cutting-edge solutions,” explained the company’s cyber security expert.

“Security requires a big investment and many business leaders don’t understand the industry very well. As a result, they won’t necessarily make the best decisions for their business as they are under pressure to quickly check a box for compliance and protection.”

The company knew that achieving a strong security posture and protecting its clients’ environments and data against threats must be more than checking a box.

Their security team selected several major vendors, including those used by similar organisations in the industry, and began analysing their approach and solutions. Initially, three key areas were evaluated: technology, innovation, and commercial agreements. The top solutions were then deployed and tested in a lab environment—subjecting them to a range of tests, including vigorous hacking attempts and cyber threats.

Armor was the clear winner on both technical and commercial criteria and has a clear focus on innovation. Armor Anywhere™ is Armor’s cloud-based security-as-a-service solution (SECaaS) designed for use in public, private, and hybrid clouds, or in an on-premise IT environment. Unlike other vendors, Armor provides full-cycle security protection, addressing prevention, detection, and even response—going beyond simple alerting to help organisations respond rapidly and effectively. The service performs 24/7/365 monitoring of their clients’ environments by security experts in Armor’s security operations centre (SOC).

The commercial model is more agile, ensuring that it is easy and cost-effective to scale up as the technology provider’s business requires. For instance, Armor’s agents can be deployed in two minutes and don’t require hardware to be installed.

The Armor solution is now deployed across the technology provider’s infrastructure, keeping its critical assets safe. It is also an integral part of the provider’s own cyber security offering to clients.

“One of the key reasons for selecting Armor was its advanced threat prevention and response platform, Spartan. The platform performs advanced analysis and correlation and applies machine learning technology to counter today’s emerging threats,” explained the company’s cyber security expert. “Armor’s commitment to innovation means that its solutions are regularly enhanced and constantly enriched with new intelligence to stay ahead of the threat.”

In addition, compliance played a key part in the decisionmaking process. The data that is generated by Armor is used by the company’s proprietary compliance platform to assist clients in remaining compliant, highlighting areas of concern, and suggesting steps for remediation. In addition, all data from any incident that was detected and remediated is entered into the Armor database and applied to the benefit of all customers.

It takes as much as 191 days to identify and remediate a breach (dwell time), according to Ponemon Institute. However, it takes only 4-6 days for a threat actor to perpetrate an attack and achieve their objectives, which could entail the theft of sensitive data. To this end, Armor currently maintains a dwell time of less than one day for its clients.

“This is critical for cyber security because the longer a breach or attack goes unnoticed, the more it costs. With early detection and Armor’s response assistance, we can work with the team at Armor to resolve the issue and mitigate any risk in a significantly shorter time than the average company in any country.”

The confidence that the hybrid cloud provider has in the Armor solution means that its customers can have the same trust that their hosted data will be safe. Agility, flexibility, and innovation are the main benefits of using the solution but working with a security vendor like Armor has additional advantages. These include having 24/7/365 threat monitoring and access to a wealth of technical security expertise that can be used to help protect the technology provider’s own infrastructure and that of its customers.