Hybrid cloud has been a boon for organizations, providing greater flexibility, scalability, and convenience to meet their business needs. With all these benefits come the challenges of infrastructure management.
Because data resides in multiple locations—public cloud, private cloud, and on-premises—organizations often overlook where they are most vulnerable from a security perspective. As a result, attackers can exploit any vulnerability they find.
In Singapore, 71% of organizations believe their current solutions are inadequate for detecting breaches, according to Gigamon’s latest Hybrid Cloud Security Survey, which interviewed 1,000 global cybersecurity leaders. This indicates a higher level of uncertainty than global averages, noted Shane Buckley, the company’s CEO and president.
“Addressing direct threats post-breach remains a significant challenge, with only 20% of respondents in Singapore reporting successful mitigation efforts. Additionally, nearly half of respondents cited lack of visibility into lateral movements within their hybrid cloud networks as a critical issue,” he said.
in the dark
To manage an interconnected web of complex cloud environments, companies need specialized skills and tools to reconcile different interfaces, APIs, and deployment models across service providers.
“The expanded attack surface associated with hybrid cloud infrastructure increases the risk of security breaches,” Buckley noted. “Maintaining consistency in security practices such as access controls, encryption, and threat monitoring across all clouds is also difficult due to the varying security configurations between providers.”
In Singapore, more than half (54%) of cybersecurity and IT respondents said they need real-time visibility into their hybrid cloud infrastructure to build confidence in breach detection solutions. It is therefore critical that security infrastructures eliminate blind spots so that malicious actors have nowhere to hide, the CEO noted.
“To overcome these challenges, organizations must prioritize gaining the ability to deeply monitor all data in motion across hybrid cloud infrastructure. This requires moving beyond traditional security tools that rely solely on standard data, events, logs, and traces, and augmenting them with real-time network intelligence derived from packets, flows, and application-specific metadata. This enables organizations to detect previously unseen threats and eliminate security blind spots,” he emphasized.
Additionally, Buckley advised adopting proactive measures in line with a zero-trust mindset to enhance organizations' security posture.
“This approach requires assuming that threat actors are already inside an organization’s digital walls and prioritizing a comprehensive network view to detect and respond to threats effectively,” he explained. “This includes constantly checking all users and devices, granting minimal access to everyone, and segmenting networks so that attackers are confined to a small area even if they sneak in.”
AI Boost
Over the next five years, Gigamon expects AI and machine learning to have a massive impact on network security and breach detection. As of early this year, 46% of organizations in Singapore are aware of the proliferation of AI-powered threats. For Buckley, this underscores both the opportunity and the challenge for security and IT leaders.
“Despite these developments, it is important to note that 93% of malware samples hide behind encryption and in today’s hybrid cloud environment, all cloud traffic is encrypted. As cybercriminals continue to leverage technology to manipulate their way into infrastructure and move stealthily across the network, AI and machine learning tools are only as powerful as the data inside them,” he said.
This, he says, is where deep surveillance sheds light on current and emerging threats.
“Deep observability is the ability to fully understand and monitor complex systems while providing network-derived information to cloud, security, and log-based monitoring tools in real time. It’s like having a detailed map that provides real-time updates to everything inside your system,” Buckley explained.
The CEO added that while AI and machine learning technologies can enhance cybersecurity capabilities, their real impact lies in their synergy with deep surveillance capabilities and proactive defense measures against advanced cyber threats.
Seeing the light
As organizations navigate the complex hybrid/multi-cloud landscape, they face a number of challenges. These include overstretched IT resources, increased regulatory pressures, and increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.
Buckley believes that proactive vision will be the key driver of success.
“Enterprises can better prepare for the evolving cybersecurity threat landscape in hybrid cloud environments by focusing on integrated tools and enhanced monitoring capabilities. Adopting a unified toolkit for managing hybrid cloud infrastructure is important to streamline operations and reduce the costs associated with multiple tools. This centralized approach not only increases efficiency, but also strengthens the organization’s overall security posture by providing clear visibility into workflows across platforms.”
The Gigamon leader also reiterated his call for a zero-trust approach to security, with a small caveat: “Zero trust is a journey, not a destination. Success depends on the ability to monitor deeply. Without strong network visibility to detect and verify suspicious activity, achieving true zero trust becomes difficult.”
Finally, the value of promoting a culture of cybersecurity awareness and education among employees simply cannot be ignored.
“Human error remains a significant factor in cybersecurity incidents. Therefore, by empowering employees with knowledge and vigilance, organizations can enhance their resilience to evolving threats in hybrid cloud environments,” he concluded.
