IBM announced on Wednesday the launch of new and enhanced services to help simplify security for the hybrid cloud. The suite of services will help businesses manage their cloud security strategy, policies and controls across hybrid cloud environments by bringing together cloud-native, IBM and third-party technologies with IBM expertise to assist organizations in the creation of a unified security approach across their cloud ecosystems.

To achieve a balance of agility, security and cost savings for their businesses, most organizations use a mix of cloud and on-premises resources.

The hybrid cloud’s flexibility provides many benefits, but a lot of companies have a hard time maintaining visibility while effectively managing the breadth of security controls across a dispersed IT environment. According to the 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report, the leading cause of data breaches were cloud misconfigurations—affecting nearly one in five data breaches studied. 

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The now available expanded suite of IBM Security Services for Cloud will help companies create consistent security strategies across hybrid cloud environments, while being supported by IBM specialists who manage native security controls across Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud and Microsoft Azure, amongst others. IBM’s services leverage artificial intelligence and automation to help identify and prioritize risks, respond to potential threats and connect data with broader security operations as well as on-premises systems. The suite is also designed to help companies evaluate their current cloud security posture, and build and manage access, policies and technical controls to safeguard new and existing cloud resources. 

“Cloud security can appear daunting, with defenders facing an expansive attack surface, shared responsibility models and rapidly evolving cloud platforms and tools,” said Vikram Chhabra, global director, offering management and strategy, IBM Security Services, in a press release. “We cannot assume that legacy approaches for security will work in this new operating model–instead, security should be modernized specifically for the hybrid cloud era, with a strategy based on zero trust principles that bring together context, collaboration and visibility across any cloud environment.”

The new services will bring together “cloud-agnostic security expertise with an integrated set of cloud, proprietary and third-party technology solutions,” as stated in the IBM press release. It will also support clients in any stage of a cloud security journey, which can mean advising organizations on how to move data, users and workloads to the cloud, and providing continual risk monitoring and threat management of their existing hybrid cloud architecture.

The suite includes cloud-native security services, cloud security posture management, container security and cloud security strategy. 

IBM also offers security services for Cloud Access Security Broker, which helps organizations protect cloud environments through an integrated approach in planning and implementing a CASB solution.

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