The cloud as company ally in times of crisis Configure

The cloud as company ally in times of crisis

Organizations that rely on the cloud have a significant advantage in the management of teleworking, explains Jacques Ruckert, Chief Solutions & Innovation Officer at Proximus Luxembourg.  The crisis will accelerate the digital transformation of organizations.

Organizations that before the current health crisis had already migrated part or all of their IT resources to the cloud have rapidly adapted to the situation. Those who maintained their activities have a real advantage over those that did not.  “If the applications are accessible via the cloud, if the processes have been adapted and the modalities for access are clearly defined, it is no longer necessary to physically go to work,”  says Jacques Ruckert, Chief Solutions & Innovation Officer at Proximus Luxembourg. In the face of COVID-19, the majority of organizations in Luxembourg were forced to generalize teleworking. “For those who had not yet embarked on their transformation to the cloud, as is the case with many financial institutions, organizing teleworking has proven particularly difficult. ”

Increased flexibility, enhanced security

The crisis has served to highlight other assets of the cloud, such as the increased flexibility it provides or the enhanced security that is associated with it.  “The cloud easily adapts to your needs without having to worry about upgrading your infrastructure. This crisis has led to a surge in the use of videoconferencing, requiring some platforms to adapt themselves to manage the volume of data exchanged, explains Jacques Ruckert. Such an increase in workload could not have been absorbed as easily if these solutions ran on the company’s internal systems.  ”

On the other hand, large cloud platforms implement considerable resources to secure their infrastructures.  There are still many players who believe that the cloud is less secure than a locally managed data center. They are probably not aware of the threats at work, which can only be combated if advanced skills and substantial resources are available.

Securing connections, monitoring traffic

“For organizations that rely on the cloud, one important security issue to be considered is the interaction between users and applications hosted in the cloud,” explains Jacques Ruckert. To secure exchanges over the internet, several tools were brought together under the concept of zero trust. First of all, the identification of the person who logs on must be ensured via strong authentication, recognition of the equipment used, or through geolocalization. Taking these parameters into account, we can then define the access rights. ”

Furthermore, monitoring of the traffic on the company network through the use of a Security Operations Center is recommended.   ”The idea is to structure the systems so as to secure the most important data, which enables us to better monitor data access and transfers at the traffic level, says Jacques Ruckert. From our SOC, we can detect the abnormal downloading of sensitive data or suspicious behavior and give a warning.  “Recent technologies, and machine learning in particular, allow the early detection of abnormal behavior at network level.”

Hunting down threats

In this context, humans also have some key advantages over machines. “Humans are particularly good at hunting down threats present in a system," explains the manager of Proximus Luxembourg. An attack can be prepared at the heart of a system over a period of several months without anyone being aware of it. Our consultants regularly have to hunt down intrusions and threats that lie dormant within our customers’ networks. ”

The crisis we are going through has made organizations aware of the need to take a different look at their IT resources.  This situation, which seemed impossible only two months ago, could recur in the future”, says Jacques Ruckert. Each organization must therefore take advantage of the opportunities linked to better use of technology, the cloud and other solutions such as electronic signature or automated processing of documents to support teleworking. Digitization will continue at an accelerating pace. ”

”One of the challenges will be to implement the Zero Office concept, or to transform the company so as to enable it to function independently of the workplace”. 

Jacques Ruckert, Chief Solutions & Innovation Officer at Proximus Luxembourg

Each has its own strategy

Migrating to the cloud is a company-specific transformation project and involves the deployment of an appropriate strategy. ”One of the challenges will be to implement the Zero Office concept or to transform the company so as to enable it to function independently of the workplace”, continues Jacques Ruckert. For this, we must rely on the cloud and build the roadmap that will allow us to adjust the organization.  While it is easy to migrate an email solution to the cloud, this is not necessarily true for all of an organization’s business applications.  Technological aspects and confidentiality issues also have to be considered. ”

For many, the migration will require a hybrid approach with some resources installed on large cloud platforms and others managed in a private cloud. ”Our expertise as support PFS has allowed us to develop governance and tools to support customers in this transformation”, says Jacques Ruckert. It is essential that everyone maintains control over their environment and remains independent of any operator by working with multiple cloud providers and designing an exit strategy from the outset.  ”

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