Why cloud-based endpoint security solutions are better than traditional options.
Cloud-based endpoint security options are much better than traditional solutions for many reasons. If your company is still using a traditional solution, now is the time to understand why a cloud-based option is much more beneficial for your company.
The emergence of cloud technology has transformed many applications businesses use. One of those applications is endpoint security. Endpoint security is the process of securing various endpoints on a network. These endpoints include mobile devices, laptops, desktops, and servers. Cloud technology has transformed endpoint security by transforming the landscape of these anti-virus suites. If your business does not currently use a cloud-based endpoint security product, it is very beneficial to compare your current endpoint security software to a cloud-based solution to understand the increased benefits of cloud-based endpoint security.
Benefits of Cloud-Based Endpoint Security
Outsourcing
With a cloud-based endpoint security solution, your company can now have a vendor that provides 24/7 monitoring by a team that is more experienced and specialized in security than an onsite security team. Having a provider that understands endpoint security will be able to deal with a broad range of malware and APT’s. Also, with a 24/7 monitoring team, your company’s security will be much safer, and this team will be able to take a holistic perspective due to their cross-customer overview. For instance, if there is a worldwide malware outbreak, this provider can use the knowledge they gain from helping all their different customers to build their intelligence database.
External Logs
Another way cloud-based security can be beneficial to your company is to store security logs both internally and externally. Storing security logs internally helps to increase performance and makes them easier to use. When security logs are stored externally, they’re used as a backup archive so if anything happened to the internal logs, your company has a backup method to retrieve any temporarily lost information. Sending endpoint security logs directly to the cloud platform will meet the performance, ease of use and backup requirements your company most likely has in place. When logs are stored in the cloud in real-time, anything that may happen to your company’s network will not affect your security logs.
Optional Local Product Infrastructure
Most cloud-based endpoint solutions communicate through API or HTTPS connections to the cloud platform eliminating the necessity for costly infrastructure. Also, having onsite download and deployment repositories can reduce the amount of external traffic, making your cloud-based solution much more secure than a traditional one. Even without onsite repositories though, a cloud-based solution will still be operational.
Independent Real-Time Monitoring
Many companies nowadays operate with a bring your own device policy allowing employees to bring their laptops from work to home and back to work again. If a laptop that connects to the company network acquires a virus while on an employee’s home network, this virus could infect the entire work network, which is a worst-case scenario. With a traditional endpoint solution, by the time the onsite security team is notified about the virus, it’s too late and the virus has already made its way through the network. With a cloud-based solution though, endpoint communication happens in real-time, if there is an internet connection. With this real-time monitoring, malware and other viruses are stopped before even having access to the work network.
Endpoint Containment
With a cloud-based endpoint solution, infected or compromised hosts are isolated and contained in real-time, in any situation, regardless of location. Being able to isolate and contain infected devices prevents them from connecting to any network until the threat is eliminated, making sure the company network remains safe and secure. This increased security and decreased risk are offered by most cloud-based vendors now, making it the largest benefit of a cloud-based endpoint solution.
Traditional endpoint solutions can’t compare to the massive benefits cloud-based solutions offer nowadays. With increased security, decreased risk and 24/7 monitoring by an extremely knowledgeable team, cloud-based solutions are a much better alternative to ensure that your company is fully protected when it comes to endpoint security.