Microsoft has announced it is extending the protections afforded by its Defender for Cloud security platform to include workloads running in Google Cloud environments.
In addition to existing support for AWS and Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Defender for Cloud will now offer native support for Google’s platform too, including “out-of-the-box” recommendations to help companies protect critical workloads from cybersecurity threats.
By improving the level of control and strengthening visibility, Microsoft says the update will advance its efforts to shield customers from attack across a diverse range of cloud systems.
Security in a multi-cloud world
As much as Microsoft would probably prefer that customers use its own Azure cloud services exclusively, the company recognizes that the tendency is now for businesses to utilize a broad range of services from multiple providers, in order to take advantage of the benefits and attributes of each.
A recent report from Flexera, cited by Microsoft, states that 78% of companies have adopted a hybrid cloud model, whereby they make use of apps and infrastructure from multiple cloud providers.
However, the downside to such a system is the level of complexity (and therefore security risk) it creates. According to data collected in a Microsoft-sponsored survey, 83% of business leaders see multi-cloud complexity as their primary challenge.
“Cloud, mobile and edge platforms have driven unprecedented business adaptation and resilience during [the pandemic], but this broad mix of technologies also introduces incredible complexity for security and compliance teams. The security operations center is racing to safeguard identities, devices, data, apps and more across multiple platforms,” wrote Vasu Jakkal, who heads up the security and compliance division at Microsoft.
“At Microsoft, our mission of empowering every person and organization on the planet to achieve more means anticipating these needs and slashing security complexity. We do this by making multi-cloud support central to our security strategy.
At its Ignite event last year, the company announced it would extend Microsoft Defender support to cover both Azure and AWS. With the latest announcement, meanwhile, it becomes the only cloud provider to offer “native multi-cloud protection” across the top three platforms, with support for Google Cloud added to the mix.
Microsoft says Defender for Cloud will help identify weak spots across cloud configurations via a centralized panel and, in so doing, minimize the complexity preventing companies from reaping the full rewards of their technology stacks.
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