Steve White |
As more and more companies move to a cloud model, businesses are giving up physical control of their data repository. If you are the customer and can walk to your server at any point in time, you have a pretty good sense that you are in control of the physical security controls that protect your data. When a company makes the decision to move to the cloud, they are entrusting the cloud provider with the sensitive data that matters most to them and their business.
ClickToTweet: Securing data-at-rest in the cloud together @CenturyLink + @Vormetric http://bit.ly/1KLVA99
According to Vormetric’s 2015 Insider Threat Report, the vast majority of enterprises (80 percent) are now making use of cloud environments, with 54 percent claiming to keep company-sensitive information in the cloud. It’s become clear that securing sensitive data in the cloud is a top concern for enterprises.
Here at CenturyLink, we provide an all-in-one cloud platform that delivers highly performant, secure, reliable and scalable cloud solutions for all workloads. We’re the third largest telecommunications company in the United States, as well as a global leader in cloud services and hosted IT solutions for enterprise customers.
If you’re familiar with CenturyLink Cloud, you may have heard about our “defense in depth” approach. This is a concept in which multiple layers or defense are placed throughout CenturyLink Cloud, meaning customer environments are protected by multiple security measures at every level – from physical equipment to cloud resources and even customer data. This comprehensive methodology allows our customers to move to the cloud with confidence, knowing that their enterprise systems and data are protected at every level. Our cloud services are built to include key security features that help our customers ensure the security of their most precious asset: their company’s data.
In today’s modern cyber-environment, data is the crown jewel, the pièce de résistance. And now that every day we hear news of yet another major data breach, such as those at Target, Sony and OPM just to name a few, securing data needs to be a top priority. Whether it’s credit card information or healthcare records, it all comes down to protecting your sensitive data from cyber attacks. Which (yup, you guessed it!) ultimately means securing data at rest.
As with any cloud service, CenturyLink adheres to a shared responsibility model for our customers, meaning security in the cloud is a responsibility shared by cloud service providers, users and independent software vendors (ISVs). In CenturyLink’s shared responsibility model, we provide not only account security, network security and physical security, but also data-in-transit encryption for our customers. In order to make it easier for users to encrypt data at rest, CenturyLink partners with ISVs, such as Vormetric, who specialize in these solutions.
This ability for CenturyLink Cloud customers to determine their own data-at-rest encryption solution differentiates us from our competitors. Due to the seamless integration through our partnership with Vormetric, our customers are enabled to easily encrypt their sensitive data at rest, with keys that they control and manage. In this way, CenturyLink and Vormetric put control in the hands of the customers.
Vormetric plays an important role in the data security layer of our defense in depth approach. By enabling our mutual customers to control the encryption keys to their sensitive data at rest, as well as a tight integration and easy deployment, CenturyLink and Vormetric allow users to take a proactive approach to the security of their sensitive data.
At the end of the day, attackers are going after data. From credit card to proprietary intellectual information, hackers are going after businesses’ data at multiple levels. To provide the best chance at maintaining control over that data, companies need to take ownership of the data security cycle from start to finish, so that ultimately, when attackers target you, your sensitive data remains yours.
Are you and your business ready to make the leap to the cloud? Visit CenturyLink Cloud Security for more information.