Cloud migration, meaning moving digital assets and data away from local, siloed systems and toward a fully cloud-based Collaborative Working Environment (CWE), is not just a change of infrastructure. Cloud migration changes where and how information moves, how quickly environments scale and how assurance needs to be maintained.

Many of the benefits of cloud migration are obvious, such as high-speed information availability, inherent shareability of data and the ability of a cloud environment to consolidate multiple existing capabilities. In 2023 Charlie Forte, MOD Chief Information Officer, wrote regarding a push toward the cloud that “defence will have the unsurpassed ability to consume, aggregate, analyse and exploit data at orders of magnitude more than ever before”, making it safe to say that the appetite for cloud migration not only exists but is ravenous, in the world of allied defence. However, a marked shift towards all things cloud does not come without its dangers.

Cloud environments bring security concerns

While the benefits are clear, the problems associated with cloud migration are numerous too. Traditional boundaries, such as those between networks, classifications or even domains, are less fixed in cloud and hybrid environments. This fact raises immediate security concerns around access rights and information leakage, that while not insurmountable, are absolutely in need of answering.

On top of that, the data volumes at play in a CWE, as well as the added wrinkles of temporary environments or accounting for coalition access and dynamic workloads, all increase the complexity of developing a viable and comprehensive cloud solution that retains an appropriate level of information security. These are issues which cannot be ignored in defence’s approach towards cloud migration. While it can be tempting to hand-wave potential issues or stop-gap them with half measures while eyeing up the tantalising benefits of a cloud-based approach, a long-term view must be taken on security in both the design and utilisation of any cloud solution.

A secure cloud environment must be adopted

What needs to change? Secure information exchange needs to become adaptable, policy-led and scalable. Any cloud-first assurance solution needs to have been designed from the ground-up with both security and real-world usability in mind. An effective solution would not only address current security concerns but would also be easy to update and adapt against new and evolving threats. 

That is where Nexor’s own cloud-native, secure information exchange solution comes in: Protean. Nexor’s Protean is a flexible, modular and highly scalable software-defined gateway, built on Nexor’s proven SIXA® framework, that delivers trusted, policy-enforced data transfer in dynamic, cloud-first environments. Protean offers software-defined control, deep content inspection, policy enforcement and, as a cloud-native solution, ease of deployment across cloud, hybrid and containerised environments. Protean's modular design allows for new content filters, inspection rules or security policies to be deployed at pace, matching changing mission requirements and emerging threats.

Protean can deliver both Network-Centric and Data-Centric Security in a single, unified platform. It supports CWEs by allowing configurable rule sets per domain or organisation, allowing users with different authorisation levels to work seamlessly side by side, alongside deep inspection of files and metadata as well as enforcement of custom clearance and sanitisation policies. Protean’s Infrastructure-as-Code automates gateway instantiation to your needs, speeding deployment. Meanwhile, Policy-as-Code automation enables a responsive and flexible security posture. Protean uses open APIs to enable orchestration with existing defence platforms and workflows, furthering the inherent objectives of connectivity and interoperability that are implied with cloud migration but not always realised.

Your next steps

To see Nexor Protean in action and learn more about how it could assist your organisation with cloud migration, contact your Nexor representative below. Our experts in cloud-based secure information exchange will discover how Protean, or a modified cloud-native solution, could work to benefit you.