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Yitzy Tannenbaum, Product Marketing Manager at AlgoSec, discusses how AWS customers can leverage AlgoSec for AWS to easily migrate... Uncategorized Migrating to AWS in six simple steps Yitzy Tannenbaum 3 min read Yitzy Tannenbaum Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 12/1/20 Published Yitzy Tannenbaum, Product Marketing Manager at AlgoSec, discusses how AWS customers can leverage AlgoSec for AWS to easily migrate applications Public cloud platforms bring a host of benefits to organizations but managing security and compliance can prove complex. These challenges are exacerbated when organizations are required to manage and maintain security across all controls that make up the security network including on-premise, SDN and in the public cloud. According to a Gartner study , 81% of organizations are concerned about security, and 57% about maintaining regulatory compliance in the public cloud. AlgoSec’s partnership with AWS helps organizations overcome these challenges by making the most of AWS’ capabilities and providing solutions that complement the AWS offering, particularly in terms of security and operational excellence. And to make things even easier, AlgoSec is now available in AWS Marketplace. Accelerating complex application migration with AlgoSec Many organizations choose to migrate workloads to AWS because it provides unparalleled opportunities for scalability, flexibility, and the ability to spin-up new servers within a few minutes. However, moving to AWS while still maintaining high-level security and avoiding application outages can be challenging, especially if you are trying to do the migration manually, which can create opportunities for human error. We help simplify the migration to AWS with a six-step automated process, which takes away manual processes and reduces the risk of error: Step 1 – AlgoSec automatically discovers and maps network flows to the relevant business applications. Step 2- AlgoSec assesses the changes in the application connectivity required to migrate it to AWS. Step 3- AlgoSec analyzes, simulates and computes the necessary changes, across the entire hybrid network (over firewalls, routers, security groups etc.), including providing a what-if risk analysis and compliance report. Step 4- AlgoSec automatically migrates the connectivity flows to the new AWS environment. Step 5 – AlgoSec securely decommissions old connectivity. Step 6- The AlgoSec platform provides ongoing monitoring and visibility of the cloud estate to maintain security and operation of policy configurations or successful continuous operation of the application. Gain control of hybrid estates with AlgoSec Security automation is essential if organizations are to maintain security and compliance across their hybrid environments, as well as get the full benefit of AWS agility and scalability. AlgoSec allows organizations to seamlessly manage security control layers across the entire network from on-premise to cloud services by providing Zero-Touch automation in three key areas. First, visibility is important, since understanding the network we have in the cloud helps us to understand how to deploy and manage the policies across the security controls that make up the hybrid cloud estate. We provide instant visibility, risk assessment and compliance, as well as rule clean-up, under one unified umbrella. Organizations can gain instant network visibility and maintain a risk-free optimized rule set across the entire hybrid network – across all AWS accounts, regions and VPC combinations, as well as 3rd party firewalls deployed in the cloud and across the connection to the on-prem network. Secondly, changes to network security policies in all these diverse security controls can be managed from a single system, security policies can be applied consistently, efficiently, and with a full audit trail of every change. Finally, security automation dramatically accelerates change processes and enables better enforcement and auditing for regulatory compliance. It also helps organizations overcome skill gaps and staffing limitations. Why Purchase Through AWS Marketplace? AWS Marketplace is a digital catalog with thousands of software listings from independent software vendors (ISVs). It makes it easy for organizations to find, test, buy, and deploy software that runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS), giving them a further option to benefit from AlgoSec. The new listing also gives organizations the ability to apply their use of AlgoSec to their AWS Enterprise Discount Program (EDP) spend commitment. With the addition of AlgoSec in AWS Marketplace, customers can benefit from simplified sourcing and contracting as well as consolidated billing, ultimately resulting in cost savings. It offers organizations instant visibility and in-depth risk analysis and remediation, providing multiple unique capabilities such as cloud security group clean-ups, as well as central policy management. This strengthens enterprises’ cloud security postures and ensures continuous audit-readiness. Ready to Get Started? The addition of AlgoSec in AWS Marketplace is the latest development in the relationship between AlgoSec and AWS and is available for businesses with 500 or more users. Visit the AlgoSec AWS Marketplace listing for more information or contact us to discuss it further. Schedule a demo Related Articles Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Convergence didn’t fail, compliance did. Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* Phone number* country* Select country... By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Protect sensitive healthcare data with Algosec’s tailored network security solutions, ensuring compliance and risk reduction. Empowering secure connectivity for healthcare Yes, AlgoSec supports continuous compliance monitoring. As organizations adapt their security policies to meet emerging threats and address new vulnerabilities, they must constantly verify these changes against the compliance frameworks they subscribe to. Can AlgoSec be used for continuous compliance monitoring? Select a size Which network Get the latest insights from the experts AlgoSec and Zero-Trust for Healthcare Read more What are HIPAA network compliance requirements, rules, and violations? Read more Checking the cybersecurity pulse of medical devices Read more Schedule time with one of our experts Schedule time with one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... phone By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

AlgoSec extends Cisco ACI’s policy-based automation to security devices in the Data Center AlgoSec’s Network Security Management Solution Now on Cisco’s Global Price List AlgoSec extends Cisco ACI’s policy-based automation to security devices in the Data Center November 26, 2019 Speak to one of our experts Ridgefield Park, NJ, USA (November 26, 2019) – AlgoSec, a leading provider of business-driven network security management solutions, today announced the availability of its integrated solution for Cisco ACI and security devices on Cisco’s Global Price List. This enables Cisco’s direct and channel sales network to offer AlgoSec’s solutions to customers through Cisco’s SolutionsPlus program. Cisco ACI, the industry’s leading software-defined networking solution, facilitates application agility and Data Center automation. ACI enables scalable multi-cloud networks with a consistent policy model and provides the flexibility to move applications seamlessly to any location or any cloud while maintaining security and high availability. AlgoSec integrates with Cisco ACI to extend ACI’s policy-based automation to multi-vendor security devices across the Data Center, on its edges and in the cloud. AlgoSec Security Management Solution for ACI enables customers to better ensure continuous compliance and automates the provisioning of security policies across ACI fabric and multi-vendor security devices connected to the ACI fabric, helping customers build more secure Data Centers. “AlgoSec and Cisco ACI share an application-centric approach to network security management, allowing customers to realize the full potential of intent-based Data Centers. We are delighted to be a part of Cisco’s Solutions Plus program and get listed on Global Price List,” said Avishai Wool, CTO and co-founder at AlgoSec. “Extending Cisco ACI’s policy driven automation to security devices, closely aligns with AlgoSec’s strategies and will deliver powerful benefits to our mutual customers. It enables customers to build truly automated IT environments that are flexible, secure and responsive to their business needs,” added Bruno Weinberger, VP, Strategic Alliances at AlgoSec. “Networking teams are increasingly adopting application-centric, policy-driven approach to meet rapidly changing requirements from IT teams and application owners,” said Ranga Rao, Senior Director of Product Management and Solutions, Cisco Data Center Networking. “AlgoSec security management solution extends ACI’s policy model and automation capabilities to security devices, allowing customers and partners to build agile and more secure data centers.” Cisco and AlgoSec’s channel partners share an equal level of enthusiasm about this initiative. “This collaboration between Cisco and AlgoSec is a great news for Conscia. As a Cisco Gold Partner and AlgoSec’s strategic partner, we hope to enable customers to realize the potential of application driven security automation, help ensure continuous compliance and reduce the attack surface in their Data Centers” said Henrik Skovfoged, System Engineering Director, Conscia A/S. About Cisco DevNet SolutionsPlus Program DevNet Solutions Plus 2.0 places a select set of “Cisco Compatible” products on the Cisco Systems price list, making it faster for customers to order non-Cisco products from Cisco sales teams and channel partners. Products in Cisco DevNet Solutions Plus 2.0 complement and augment Cisco’s advanced technology products. Cisco DevNet Solutions Plus 2.0 vendors are also part of the Cisco® Solution Partner Program. About AlgoSec The leading provider of business-driven network security management solutions, AlgoSec helps the world’s largest organizations align security with their mission-critical business processes. With AlgoSec, users can discover, map and migrate business application connectivity, proactively analyze risk from the business perspective, tie cyber-attacks to business processes and intelligently automate network security changes with zero touch – across their cloud, SDN and on-premise networks. Over 1,800 enterprises , including 20 of the Fortune 50, have utilized AlgoSec’s solutions to make their organizations more agile, more secure and more compliant – all the time. Since 2005, AlgoSec has shown its commitment to customer satisfaction with the industry’s only money-back guarantee .All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners. Media Contacts: Tsippi [email protected] Craig CowardContext Public [email protected] +44 (0)1625 511 966

Cloud security is one of the big buzzwords in the security space along with big data and others. So we’ll try to tackle where cloud... Information Security Cloud Security: Current Status, Trends and Tips Kyle Wickert 3 min read Kyle Wickert Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 6/25/13 Published Cloud security is one of the big buzzwords in the security space along with big data and others. So we’ll try to tackle where cloud security is today, where its heading as well as outline challenges and offer tips for CIOs and CSOs looking to experiment with putting more systems and data in the cloud. The cloud is viewed by many as a solution to reducing IT costs and ultimately has led many organizations to accept data risks they would not consider acceptable in their own environments. In our State of Network Security 2013 Survey , we asked security professionals how many security controls were in the cloud and 60 percent of respondents reported having less than a quarter of their security controls in the cloud – and in North America the larger the organization, the less security controls in the cloud. Certainly some security controls just aren’t meant for the cloud, but I think this highlights the uncertainty around the cloud, especially for larger organizations. Current State of Cloud Security Cloud security has clearly emerged with both a technological and business case, but from a security perspective, it’s still a bit in a state of flux. A key challenges that many information security professionals are struggling with is how to classify the cloud and define the appropriate type of controls to secure data entering the cloud. While oftentimes the cloud is classified as a trusted network, the cloud is inherently untrusted since it is not simply an extension of the organization, but it’s an entirely separate environment that is out of the organization’s control. Today “the cloud” can mean a lot of things: a cloud could be a state-of-the-art data center or a server rack in a farm house holding your organization’s data. One of the biggest reasons that organizations entertain the idea of putting more systems, data and controls in the cloud is because of the certain cost savings. One tip would be to run a true cost-benefit-risk analysis that factors in the value of the data being sent into the cloud. There is value to be gained from sending non-sensitive data into the cloud, but when it comes to more sensitive information, the security costs will increase to the point where the analysis may suggest keeping in-house. Cloud Security Trends Here are several trends to look for when it comes to cloud security: Data security is moving to the forefront, as security teams refocus their efforts in securing the data itself instead of simply the servers it resides on. A greater focus is being put on efforts such as securing data-at-rest, thus mitigating the need to some degree the reliance on system administrators to maintain OS level controls, often outside the scope of management for information security teams. With more data breaches occurring each day, I think we will see a trend in collecting less data where is it simply not required. Systems that are processing or storing sensitive data, by their very nature, incur a high cost to IT departments, so we’ll see more effort being placed on business analysis and system architecture to avoid collecting data that may not be required for the business task. Gartner Research recently noted that by 2019, 90 percent of organizations will have personal data on IT systems they don’t own or control! Today, content and cloud providers typically use legal means to mitigate the impact of any potential breaches or loss of data. I think as cloud services mature, we’ll see more of a shift to a model where it’s not just these vendors offering software as a service, but also includes security controls in conjunction with their services. More pressure from security teams will be put on content providers to provide such things as dedicated database tiers, to isolate their organization’s data within the cloud itself. Cloud Security Tips Make sure you classify data before even considering sending it for processing or storage in the cloud. If data is deemed too sensitive, the risks of sending this data into the cloud must be weighed closely against the costs of appropriately securing it in the cloud. Once information is sent into the cloud, there is no going back! So make sure you’ve run a comprehensive analysis of what you’re putting in the cloud and vet your vendors carefully as cloud service providers use varying architectures, processes, and procedures that may place your data in many precarious places. Schedule a demo Related Articles Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Convergence didn’t fail, compliance did. Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* Phone number* country* Select country... By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

AlgoSec - Case for Convergence Download PDF Schedule time with one of our experts Schedule time with one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... phone By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

Explore Algosec's customer success stories to see how organizations worldwide improve security, compliance, and efficiency with our solutions. MIND Automates Firewall Management Operations and Improves The Quality of Service Organization MIND Industry Technology Headquarters Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India Download case study Share Customer
success stories "With AlgoSec, we can analyze the firewall policies more efficiently and spend less time on repetitive and error-prone manual tasks. This automation saves time and man hours by at least five hours per change" Global IT Consulting Company Improves Security and Increases Efficiency by Eliminating Error-prone Manual Firewall Management AlgoSec Business Impact Cut time to plan and implement firewall changes by 50% Network security reporting and audits available at the click of a button Improved risk assessment as part of firewall change process to ensure accuracy Enable existing team to spend more time on other security tasks Background MothersonSumi INfotech and Designs Limited (MIND) is a global provider of end-to-end IT solutions, serving organizations in 24 nations. MIND is certified for ISO 9001:2008, ISO/IEC 27001:2005 and CMM Level 5, and provides consultancy services and solutions for Application Development and Maintenance, IT Infrastructure Management Services, Product Development and Engineering Solutions and helps customers achieve their desired ISO level. Challenge MIND’s complex network consists of many remote locations and is secured with more than 40 firewalls from multiple vendors, including Check Point, Fortinet and Juniper as well as Blue Coat proxies. With hundreds of unnecessary rules in each of the firewalls under management, MIND’s Network Support team members were spending too much time cleaning up the policy rule base. “Cleaning up the policy rule base is a tedious, risky manually-intensive job,” said Santosh Sahoo, Assistant Project Manager at MIND. “Furthermore, we had to evaluate the risks based on best practices or our experience, which was time consuming. We also had to collect and organize this information into the proper reporting format for ISO 27001 requirements.” Additionally, manually planning and implementing firewall changes was a time-consuming and complex process, as was keeping track of all of the changes and updating records for auditing and/or rollback purposes. With all of these challenges, plus increasing network complexity, MIND realized they needed a more efficient method for centrally monitoring and managing all of their security devices and policies. Solution MIND selected the AlgoSec Security Management solution to automate firewall operations across the entire multivendor estate and reduce the resource strain. “There were many reasons why we chose AlgoSec over alternative options. It met all of our requirements by supporting a wider range of devices, providing a dashboard with immediate visibility and more robust policy analysis,” said Harvansh Sagar, GM of IT Infrastructure. Results Since implementing AlgoSec, the MIND team has significantly improved its firewall policy management change processes — from identifying any pre-existing rules in place, to risk assessment, to simulating the change. “AlgoSec has helped us make our our network more secure and has improved our ability to efficiency to manage more client devices with the same resources,” said Sagar. “We are now able to more efficiently analyze the firewall policies, spend less time on repetitive and error-prone manual tasks and perform a risk assessment before approving firewall changes. This automation saves time and man hours by at least five hours per change,” said Santosh. “AlgoSec’s firewall policy analysis has also improved the performance of the firewalls with features like policy tuning, identifying un-used policies and reordering policies.” With AlgoSec, MIND has a complete understanding of what is occurring with the policy across all of their firewalls. “We have a virtual server dedicated to AlgoSec as our management server for all of the firewalls in our environment. It monitors our security policy 24×7 and provides us with real-time alerting for details like ‘who added/modified/removed the rule, what time the policy was pushed,’ etc. Now we have full visibility of what’s going on with these devices,” said Santosh. Using AlgoSec, MIND has also been able to significantly reduce the time to perform audits and ensure compliance. “We can now run an audit report for ISO 27001 out-of-the-box and get a view of the network security policy status in just a click of button.” Schedule time with one of our experts

Organizations of all sizes can now protect their cloud-native applications easily and cost-effectively across containers and all other cloud assets AlgoSec acquires Prevasio to disrupt the Agentless Cloud Security market Organizations of all sizes can now protect their cloud-native applications easily and cost-effectively across containers and all other cloud assets December 7, 2022 Speak to one of our experts Ridgefield Park, NJ, December 6, 2022 – AlgoSec, a global cybersecurity leader in securing application connectivity, announced today that it has acquired Prevasio, a SaaS cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) that includes an agentless cloud security posture management (CSPM) platform, anti-malware scan, vulnerability assessment and dynamic analysis for containers. As applications rapidly migrate to the Cloud, security teams are being flooded with alerts. These teams are struggling to detect and prioritize risks through Cloud providers’ native security controls, especially in multi-cloud environments. Furthermore, security teams are hard-pressed to find solutions that meet their budgetary restrictions. To answer this need, AlgoSec will offer the Prevasio solution at aggressive pricing to new customers, as well as the existing 1,800 blue chip enterprise organizations they currently serve, allowing them to reduce their cloud security costs. Prevasio’s user-friendly, cost-effective SaaS solution is designed for hardening security posture across all cloud assets, including containers. The solution provides increased visibility into security issues and compliance gaps, enabling the cloud operations and security teams to prioritize risks and comply with CIS benchmarks. Prevasio customers have successfully reduced administration time and achieved operational cost reductions, even across small teams, within days of operationalization. Leveraging patented technology developed by SRI International, one of the world’s largest research institutes and the developer of Siri and many other leading technologies, Prevasio’s key capabilities include: Analysis of all assets across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, offering a unified view in a single pane of glass Prioritized risk according to CIS benchmarks, HIPPA and PCI regulations Blazing fast static- and dynamic- agentless vulnerability scanning of containers Assessment and detection of cybersecurity threats Instantaneous connection to AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud accounts without installation or deployment Furthermore, AlgoSec will incorporate SRI artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities into the Prevasio solution. “Applications are the lifeblood of organizations. As such, our customers have an urgent need to effectively secure the connectivity of those applications across cloud and hybrid estates to avoid unpleasant surprises. With Prevasio, organizations can now confidently secure their cloud-native applications to increase organizational agility and harden security posture,” said Yuval Baron, AlgoSec CEO. For a free trial of the Prevasio solution, click here . About AlgoSec AlgoSec, a global cybersecurity leader, empowers organizations to secure application connectivity by automating connectivity flows and security policy, anywhere. The AlgoSec platform enables the world’s most complex organizations to gain visibility, reduce risk, achieve compliance at the application-level and process changes at zero-touch across the hybrid network. AlgoSec’s patented application-centric view of the hybrid network enables business owners, application owners, and information security professionals to talk the same language, so organizations can deliver business applications faster while achieving a heightened security posture. Over 1,800 of the world’s leading organizations trust AlgoSec to help secure their most critical workloads across public cloud, private cloud, containers, and on-premises networks. About Prevasio Prevasio, an AlgoSec company, helps organizations of all sizes protect their cloud-native applications across containers and all other cloud assets. Prevasio’s agentless cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) provides increased visibility into security and compliance gaps, enabling the cloud operations and security teams to prioritize risks and ensure compliance with internet security benchmarks. Acquired by AlgoSec in 2022, Prevasio combines cloud-native security with SRI International’s proprietary AI capabilities and AlgoSec’s expertise in securing 1,800 of the world’s most complex organizations.

Partner solution brief Manage secure application connectivity within BMC Remedy Download PDF Schedule time with one of our experts Schedule time with one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... phone By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

6 must-dos to secure the hybrid cloud Download PDF Schedule time with one of our experts Schedule time with one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... phone By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

All organizations eventually inherit outdated technology infrastructure. As new technology becomes available, old apps and services... Firewall Change Management The Application Migration Checklist Asher Benbenisty 13 min read Asher Benbenisty Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 10/25/23 Published All organizations eventually inherit outdated technology infrastructure. As new technology becomes available, old apps and services become increasingly expensive to maintain. That expense can come in a variety of forms: Decreased productivity compared to competitors using more modern IT solutions. Greater difficulty scaling IT asset deployments and managing the device life cycle . Security and downtime risks coming from new vulnerabilities and emerging threats. Cloud computing is one of the most significant developments of the past decade. Organizations are increasingly moving their legacy IT assets to new environments hosted on cloud services like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure. Cloud migration projects enable organizations to dramatically improve productivity, scalability, and security by transforming on-premises applications to cloud-hosted solutions. However, cloud migration projects are among the most complex undertakings an organization can attempt. Some reports state that nine out of ten migration projects experience failure or disruption at some point, and only one out of four meet their proposed deadlines. The better prepared you are for your application migration project , the more likely it is to succeed. Keep the following migration checklist handy while pursuing this kind of initiative at your company. Step 1: Assessing Your Applications The more you know about your legacy applications and their characteristics, the more comprehensive you can be with pre-migration planning. Start by identifying the legacy applications that you want to move to the cloud. Pay close attention to the dependencies that your legacy applications have. You will need to ensure the availability of those resources in an IT environment that is very different from the typical on-premises data center. You may need to configure cloud-hosted resources to meet specific needs that are unique to your organization and its network architecture. Evaluate the criticality of each legacy application you plan on migrating to the cloud. You will have to prioritize certain applications over others, minimizing disruption while ensuring the cloud-hosted infrastructure can support the workload you are moving to. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to application migration. The inventory assessment may bring new information to light and force you to change your initial approach. It’s best that you make these accommodations now rather than halfway through the application migration project. Step 2: Choosing the Right Migration Strategy Once you know what applications you want to move to the cloud and what additional dependencies must be addressed for them to work properly, you’re ready to select a migration strategy. These are generalized models that indicate how you’ll transition on-premises applications to cloud-hosted ones in the context of your specific IT environment. Some of the options you should gain familiarity with include: Lift and Shift (Rehosting). This option enables you to automate the migration process using tools like CloudEndure Migration, AWS VM Import/Export, and others. The lift and shift model is well-suited to organizations that need to migrate compatible large-scale enterprise applications without too many additional dependencies, or organizations that are new to the cloud. Replatforming. This is a modified version of the lift and shift model. Essentially, it introduces an additional step where you change the configuration of legacy apps to make them better-suited to the cloud environment. By adding a modernization phase to the process, you can leverage more of the cloud’s unique benefits and migrate more complex apps. Refactoring/Re-architecting. This strategy involves rewriting applications from scratch to make them cloud-native. This allows you to reap the full benefits of cloud technology. Your new applications will be scalable, efficient, and agile to the maximum degree possible. However, it’s a time-consuming, resource-intensive project that introduces significant business risk into the equation. Repurchasing. This is where the organization implements a fully mature cloud architecture as a managed service. It typically relies on a vendor offering cloud migration through the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. You will need to pay licensing fees, but the technical details of the migration process will largely be the vendor’s responsibility. This is an easy way to add cloud functionality to existing business processes, but it also comes with the risk of vendor lock-in. Step 3: Building Your Migration Team The success of your project relies on creating and leading a migration team that can respond to the needs of the project at every step. There will be obstacles and unexpected issues along the way – a high-quality team with great leadership is crucial for handling those problems when they arise. Before going into the specifics of assembling a great migration team, you’ll need to identify the key stakeholders who have an interest in seeing the project through. This is extremely important because those stakeholders will want to see their interests represented at the team level. If you neglect to represent a major stakeholder at the team level, you run the risk of having major, expensive project milestones rejected later on. Not all stakeholders will have the same level of involvement, and few will share the same values and goals. Managing them effectively means prioritizing the values and goals they represent, and choosing team members accordingly. Your migration team will consist of systems administrators, technical experts, and security practitioners, and include input from many other departments. You’ll need to formalize a system of communicating inside the core team and messaging stakeholders outside of it. You may also wish to involve end users as a distinct part of your migration team and dedicate time to addressing their concerns throughout the process. Keep team members’ stakeholder alignments and interests in mind when assigning responsibilities. For example, if a particular configuration step requires approval from the finance department, you’ll want to make sure that someone representing that department is involved from the beginning. Step 4: Creating a Migration Plan It’s crucial that every migration project follows a comprehensive plan informed by the needs of the organization itself. Organizations pursue cloud migration for many different reasons – your plan should address the problems you expect cloud-hosted technology to solve. This might mean focusing on reducing costs, enabling entry into a new market, or increasing business agility – or all three. You may have additional reasons for pursuing an application migration plan. This plan should also include data mapping . Choosing the right application performance metrics now will help make the decision-making process much easier down the line. Some of the data points that cloud migration specialists recommend capturing include: Duration highlights the value of employee labor-hours as they perform tasks throughout the process. Operational duration metrics can tell you how much time project managers spend planning the migration process, or whether one phase is taking much longer than another, and why. Disruption metrics can help identify user experience issues that become obstacles to onboarding and full adoption. Collecting data about the availability of critical services and the number of service tickets generated throughout the process can help you gauge the overall success of the initiative from the user’s perspective. Cost includes more than data transfer rates. Application migration initiatives also require creating dependency mappings, changing applications to make them cloud-native, and significant administrative costs. Up to 50% of your migration’s costs pay for labor , and you’ll want to keep close tabs on those costs as the process goes on. Infrastructure metrics like CPU usage, memory usage, network latency, and load balancing are best captured both before and after the project takes place. This will let you understand and communicate the value of the project in its entirety using straightforward comparisons. Application performance metrics like availability figures, error rates, time-outs and throughput will help you calculate the value of the migration process as a whole. This is another post-cloud migration metric that can provide useful before-and-after data. You will also want to establish a series of cloud service-level agreements (SLAs) that ensure a predictable minimum level of service is maintained. This is an important guarantee of the reliability and availability of the cloud-hosted resources you expect to use on a daily basis. Step 5: Mapping Dependencies Mapping dependencies completely and accurately is critical to the success of any migration project. If you don’t have all the elements in your software ecosystem identified correctly, you won’t be able to guarantee that your applications will work in the new environment. Application dependency mapping will help you pinpoint which resources your apps need and allow you to make those resources available. You’ll need to discover and assess every workload your organization undertakes and map out the resources and services it relies on. This process can be automated, which will help large-scale enterprises create accurate maps of complex interdependent processes. In most cases, the mapping process will reveal clusters of applications and services that need to be migrated together. You will have to identify the appropriate windows of opportunity for performing these migrations without disrupting the workloads they process. This often means managing data transfer and database migration tasks and carrying them out in a carefully orchestrated sequence. You may also discover connectivity and VPN requirements that need to be addressed early on. For example, you may need to establish protocols for private access and delegate responsibility for managing connections to someone on your team. Project stakeholders may have additional connectivity needs, like VPN functionality for securing remote connections. These should be reflected in the application dependency mapping process. Multi-cloud compatibility is another issue that will demand your attention at this stage. If your organization plans on using multiple cloud providers and configuring them to run workloads specific to their platform, you will need to make sure that the results of these processes are communicated and stored in compatible formats. Step 6: Selecting a Cloud Provider Once you fully understand the scope and requirements of your application migration project, you can begin comparing cloud providers. Amazon, Microsoft, and Google make up the majority of all public cloud deployments, and the vast majority of organizations start their search with one of these three. Amazon AW S has the largest market share, thanks to starting its cloud infrastructure business several years before its major competitors did. Amazon’s head start makes finding specialist talent easier, since more potential candidates will have familiarity with AWS than with Azure or Google Cloud. Many different vendors offer services through AWS, making it a good choice for cloud deployments that rely on multiple services and third-party subscriptions. Microsoft Azure has a longer history serving enterprise customers, even though its cloud computing division is smaller and younger than Amazon’s. Azure offers a relatively easy transition path that helps enterprise organizations migrate to the cloud without adding a large number of additional vendors to the process. This can help streamline complex cloud deployments, but also increases your reliance on Microsoft as your primary vendor. Google Cloud is the third runner-up in terms of market share. It continues to invest in cloud technologies and is responsible for a few major innovations in the space – like the Kubernetes container orchestration system. Google integrates well with third-party applications and provides a robust set of APIs for high-impact processes like translation and speech recognition. Your organization’s needs will dictate which of the major cloud providers offers the best value. Each provider has a different pricing model, which will impact how your organization arrives at a cost-effective solution. Cloud pricing varies based on customer specifications, usage, and SLAs, which means no single provider is necessarily “the cheapest” or “the most expensive” – it depends on the context. Additional cost considerations you’ll want to take into account include scalability and uptime guarantees. As your organization grows, you will need to expand its cloud infrastructure to accommodate more resource-intensive tasks. This will impact the cost of your cloud subscription in the future. Similarly, your vendor’s uptime guarantee can be a strong indicator of how invested it is in your success. Given all vendors work on the shared responsibility model, it may be prudent to consider an enterprise data backup solution for peace of mind. Step 7: Application Refactoring If you choose to invest time and resources into refactoring applications for the cloud, you’ll need to consider how this impacts the overall project. Modifying existing software to take advantage of cloud-based technologies can dramatically improve the efficiency of your tech stack, but it will involve significant risk and up-front costs. Some of the advantages of refactoring include: Reduced long-term costs. Developers refactor apps with a specific context in mind. The refactored app can be configured to accommodate the resource requirements of the new environment in a very specific manner. This boosts the overall return of investing in application refactoring in the long term and makes the deployment more scalable overall. Greater adaptability when requirements change . If your organization frequently adapts to changing business requirements, refactored applications may provide a flexible platform for accommodating unexpected changes. This makes refactoring attractive for businesses in highly regulated industries, or in scenarios with heightened uncertainty. Improved application resilience . Your cloud-native applications will be decoupled from their original infrastructure. This means that they can take full advantage of the benefits that cloud-hosted technology offers. Features like low-cost redundancy, high-availability, and security automation are much easier to implement with cloud-native apps. Some of the drawbacks you should be aware of include: Vendor lock-in risks . As your apps become cloud-native, they will naturally draw on cloud features that enhance their capabilities. They will end up tightly coupled to the cloud platform you use. You may reach a point where withdrawing those apps and migrating them to a different provider becomes infeasible, or impossible. Time and talent requirements . This process takes a great deal of time and specialist expertise. If your organization doesn’t have ample amounts of both, the process may end up taking too long and costing too much to be feasible. Errors and vulnerabilities . Refactoring involves making major changes to the way applications work. If errors work their way in at this stage, it can deeply impact the usability and security of the workload itself. Organizations can use cloud-based templates to address some of these risks, but it will take comprehensive visibility into how applications interact with cloud security policies to close every gap. Step 8: Data Migration There are many factors to take into consideration when moving data from legacy applications to cloud-native apps. Some of the things you’ll need to plan for include: Selecting the appropriate data transfer method . This depends on how much time you have available for completing the migration, and how well you plan for potential disruptions during the process. If you are moving significant amounts of data through the public internet, sidelining your regular internet connection may be unwise. Offline transfer doesn’t come with this risk, but it will include additional costs. Ensuring data center compatibility. Whether transferring data online or offline, compatibility issues can lead to complex problems and expensive downtime if not properly addressed. Your migration strategy should include a data migration testing strategy that ensures all of your data is properly formatted and ready to use the moment it is introduced to the new environment. Utilizing migration tools for smooth data transfer . The three major cloud providers all offer cloud migration tools with multiple tiers and services. You may need to use these tools to guarantee a smooth transfer experience, or rely on a third-party partner for this step in the process. Step 9: Configuring the Cloud Environment By the time your data arrives in its new environment, you will need to have virtual machines and resources set up to seamlessly take over your application workloads and processes. At the same time, you’ll need a comprehensive set of security policies enforced by firewall rules that address the risks unique to cloud-hosted infrastructure. As with many other steps in this checklist, you’ll want to carefully assess, plan, and test your virtual machine deployments before deploying them in a live production environment. Gather information about your source and target environment and document the workloads you wish to migrate. Set up a test environment you can use to make sure your new apps function as expected before clearing them for live production. Similarly, you may need to configure and change firewall rules frequently during the migration process. Make sure that your new deployments are secured with reliable, well-documented security policies. If you skip the documentation phase of building your firewall policy, you run the risk of introducing security vulnerabilities into the cloud environment, and it will be very difficult for you to identify and address them later on. You will also need to configure and deploy network interfaces that dictate where and when your cloud environment will interact with other networks, both inside and outside your organization. This is your chance to implement secure network segmentation that protects mission-critical assets from advanced and persistent cyberattacks. This is also the best time to implement disaster recovery mechanisms that you can rely on to provide business continuity even if mission-critical assets and apps experience unexpected downtime. Step 10: Automating Workflows Once your data and apps are fully deployed on secure cloud-hosted infrastructure, you can begin taking advantage of the suite of automation features your cloud provider offers. Depending on your choice of migration strategy, you may be able to automate repetitive tasks, streamline post-migration processes, or enhance the productivity of entire departments using sophisticated automation tools. In most cases, automating routine tasks will be your first priority. These automations are among the simplest to configure because they largely involve high-volume, low-impact tasks. Ideally, these tasks are also isolated from mission-critical decision-making processes. If you established a robust set of key performance indicators earlier on in the migration project, you can also automate post-migration processes that involve capturing and reporting these data points. Your apps will need to continue ingesting and processing data, making data validation another prime candidate for workflow automation. Cloud-native apps can ingest data from a wide range of sources, but they often need some form of validation and normalization to produce predictable results. Ongoing testing and refinement will help you make the most of your migration project moving forward. How AlgoSec Enables Secure Application Migration Visibility and Di scovery : AlgoSec provide s comprehensive visibility into your existing on-premises network environment. It automatically discovers all network devices, applications, and their dependencies. This visibility is crucial when planning a secure migration, ensuring no critical elements get overlooked in the process. Application Dependency Mapping : AlgoSec’s application dependency mapping capabilities allow you to understand how different applications and services interact within your network. This knowledge is vital during migration to avoid disrupting critical dependencies. Risk Assessment : AlgoSec assesses the security and compliance risks associated with your migration plan. It identifies potential vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and compliance violations that could impact the security of the migrated applications. Security Policy Analysis : Before migrating, AlgoSec helps you analyze your existing security policies and rules. It ensures that security policies are consistent and effective in the new cloud or data center environment. Misconfigurations and unnecessary rules can be eliminated, reducing the attack surface. Automated Rule Optimiz ation : AlgoSec automates the o ptimization of security rules. It identifies redundant rules, suggests rule consolidations, and ensures that only necessary traffic is allowed, helping you maintain a secure environment during migration. Change Management : During the migration process, changes to security policies and firewall rules are often necessary. AlgoSec facilitates change management by providing a streamlined process for requesting, reviewing, and implementing rule changes. This ensures that security remains intact throughout the migration. Compliance and Governance : AlgoSec helps maintain compliance with industry regulations and security best practices. It generates compliance reports, ensures rule consistency, and enforces security policies, even in the new cloud or data center environment. Continuous Monitoring and Auditing : Post-migration, AlgoSec continues to monitor and audit your security policies and network traffic. It alerts you to any anomalies or security breaches, ensuring the ongoing security of your migrated applications. Integration with Cloud Platforms : AlgoSec integrates seamlessly with various cloud platforms such as AWS , Microsoft Azure , and Google Cloud . This ensures that security policies are consistently applied in both on-premises and cloud environments, enabling a secure hybrid or multi-cloud setup. Operational Efficiency : AlgoSec’s automation capabilities reduce manual tasks, improving operational efficiency. This is essential during the migration process, where time is often of the essence. Real-time Visibility and Control : AlgoSec provides real-time visibility and control over your security policies, allowing you to adapt quickly to changing migration requirements and security threats. Schedule a demo Related Articles Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Convergence didn’t fail, compliance did. Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* Phone number* country* Select country... By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Learn how automation can simplify the process of rule recertification and help determine which rules are still necessary Webinars Play by the rules: Automation for simplified rule recertification As time goes by, once effective firewall rules can become outdated. This results in bloated security policies which can slow down application delivery. Therefore, best practice and compliance requirements calls for rule recertification at least once per year. While rule recertification can be done manually by going through the comments fields of every rule, this is a tedious process which is also subject to the weaknesses of human error. Automation can simplify the process and help determine which rules are still necessary, if done right. Join security experts Asher Benbenisty and Tsippi Dach to learn about: Rule recertification as part of application delivery pipeline The importance of recertifying rules regularly Methods used for rule recertification The business application approach for rule recertification October 27, 2021 Tsippi Dach Director of marketing communications Asher Benbenisty Director of product marketing Relevant resources AlgoSec AppViz – Rule Recertification Watch Video Changing the rules without risk: mapping firewall rules to business applications Keep Reading Choose a better way to manage your network Choose a better way to manage your network Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... phone By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue