Enterprises embrace Kubernetes, but lack security tools to mitigate risk

Businesses increasingly embrace the moving of multiple applications to the cloud using containers and utilize Kubernetes for orchestration, according to Zettaset.

However, findings also confirm that organizations are inadequately securing the data stored in these new cloud-native environments and continue to leverage existing legacy security technology as a solution.

Businesses are faced with significant IT-related challenges as they strive to keep up with the demands of digital transformation. Now more than ever to maintain a competitive edge, companies are rapidly developing and deploying new applications.

Companies must invest in high performance data protection

The adoption of containers, microservices and Kubernetes for orchestration play a significant role in these digital acceleration efforts. And yet, while many companies are eager to adopt these new cloud-native technologies, research shows that companies are not accurately weighing the benefits of enterprise IT innovation with inherent security risks.

“Data security should be a fundamental requirement for any enterprise organization and the adoption of new technology should not change that,” said Tim Reilly, CEO, Zettaset.

“Our goal with this research was to determine whether enterprise organizations who are actively transitioning from DevOps to DevSecOps are investing in proper security and data protection technology. And while findings confirm that companies are in fact making the strategic decision to shift towards cloud-native environments, they are currently ill-equipped to secure their company’s most critical asset: data.

“Companies must invest in high performance data protection so as it to secure critical information in real-time across any architecture.”

The conclusions

• Organizations are embracing the cloud and cloud-native technologies: 39% of respondents have multiple production applications deployed on Kubernetes. But, companies are still struggling with the complexities associated with these environments and how to secure deployments.
• Cloud providers offer considerable influence with regards to Kubernetes distribution: A little over half of those surveyed are using open source Kubernetes available through the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). And 34.7% of respondents are using a Kubernetes offering managed by an existing cloud provider such as AWS, Google, Azure, and IBM.
• Kubernetes security best practices have yet to be identified: 60.1% of respondents believe there is a lack of proper education and awareness of the proper ways to mitigate risk associated with storing data in cloud-native environments. And 43.2% are confident that multiple vulnerable attack surfaces are created with the introduction of Kubernetes.
• Companies have yet to evolve their existing security strategies: Almost half of respondents (46.5%) are using traditional data encryption tools to protect their data stored in Kubernetes clusters. Over 20% are finding that these traditional tools are not performing as desired.

“The results of our research substantiate the notion that enterprise organizations are moving forward with cloud-native technologies such as containers and Kubernetes. What we were most interested in discovering was how these companies are approaching security,” said Charles Kolodgy, security strategist and author of the report.

“Companies overall are concerned about the wide range of potential attack surfaces. They are applying legacy solutions but those are not designed to handle today’s ever-evolving threat landscape, especially as data is being moved off-premise to cloud-based environments.

“To stay ahead of what’s to come, companies must look to solutions purposely built to operate in a Kubernetes environment.”