The last few months have changed the way we work – working from home, social distance and teleworking – and all of this has affected the way we have lived our lives so far. At Microsoft, we have worked hard to help our customers adapt to this rapidly evolving and changing work environment. As has been the case for some time, this is done within a framework of zero trust, an approach that we believe is crucial to ensure a strong security position. Zero Trust is based on applying visibility, meeting management requirements and controlling applications, services, resources and workloads in the cloud.
As businesses adapt to working in remote locations and unmanaged devices, deployment of the Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) has accelerated. According to a recent Gartner report, CASBs are (now) an integral part of cloud security strategies.
We believe that protecting applications in the cloud is an essential part of any security solution and enables a zero-trust approach. Companies from all customer segments protect their applications with Microsoft Cloud App Security, from large professional service companies such as Accenture to healthcare organizations such as St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.
According to a recent Total Economic Impact (TEI) study commissioned by Forrester Consulting, customers can save time and resources and improve security with Microsoft Cloud App Security. The Forrester study established a three-year return on investment of 151%, which means less than three months return on investment in cloud application security. In fact, Microsoft Cloud App Security uses internal resources, and it was great to see the momentum of our customers as we passed the 100 million protected users mark in the summer of 2020. We have created a unique perspective that allows customers to benefit from control and management. This year, Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) was recognized in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud Access Security Brokers.
Microsoft Cloud App Security is Microsoft’s CASB. This important productivity and security tool helps organizations access their applications and services in the cloud. It provides advanced analysis to identify and combat cyber threats and control the movement of sensitive information. It supports Microsoft’s own cloud services and many third-party cloud applications and services such as Dropbox, Salesforce and others.
Our vision for the CASB category is to go beyond just checking SaaS applications and move to IaaS and PaaS attitudes and management recommendations. We are convinced that we want to offer our customers a comprehensive security solution that recognizes their security on all platforms and in the cloud. We make this vision a reality through five main options:
- Shadow IT Discovery enables customers to clearly see the opaque space of the cloud; in addition to traditional proxy and firewall protocols, we extend this discovery to the endpoint through integration with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. This integration also supports endpoint CASB capabilities, allowing Cloud App Security to enforce policies to protect against threats and information at any supported endpoint. Once there is an idea of how cloud resources are used, customers can start implementing control and management policies.
- The ability to protect information, identify critical information and enforce policies and access controls is an important investment for customers. The advanced integration with Microsoft Information Protection and the reverse proxy capabilities of Cloud App Security enable customers to implement advanced information and data loss prevention (DLP) policies in Microsoft and third-party applications.
- Threat Protection uses Microsoft Defender for Identity to provide an unambiguous picture of an organization’s identity in local and cloud resources and to monitor behavior and identify anomalies, in addition to blocking malicious content and malicious cargo.
- Cloud App Security’s secure access capabilities are closely integrated with Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), allowing customers to enforce and control access and session policies for all resources managed in the cloud.
- Evaluation and management of Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM), carried out in close collaboration with the Azure Security Center, ensuring a multi-cloud security posture (AWS, GCP, etc.) for customers.
Microsoft remains committed to the security of cloud-based applications and we are actively exploring the most advantageous investment areas for our customers. For example, we will improve SaaS security posture management (SSPM) as a baseline scenario in all our security offerings and we will continue to listen to our customers to support them in their efforts to achieve a strong security posture.
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View this free copy of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Cloud Access Security Brokers to analyze Microsoft’s market leadership.
You can also visit Impact™ to learn more about how Cloud App Security can save you time and money.
For more information about our CASB solution, please visit our website and follow the news in our blog. Would you like to see our CASB in action? Start your free trial today and find out how to get started with our detailed technical documentation.
* Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud Security Brokers, Craig Lawson, Steve Riley, 28. October 2020.
This table is published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in conjunction with the full document. The Gartner document is available on request from Microsoft.
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research, and does not advise technology users to select only the best suppliers or other designations. Gartner’s research publications are opinions of the Gartner research organization and should not be interpreted as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
