Having made acquisitions in the cybersecurity space over the past year, Google and Microsoft plan to make their cloud environments more secure.
Mandiant, a cybersecurity firm, revealed in early March that it had reached a definitive agreement to be acquired by Google in a $5.4 billion deal, marking the latest indicator that security expertise and capabilities have become critical for effective cloud service operations.
Over the last year, all three of the largest public cloud providers — Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud — have made cybersecurity acquisitions, and it’s likely that others will follow as these businesses try to strengthen their data protection efforts.
Google Cloud has been developing cloud-native security into the foundation of its technology as Google strives to combat risks like malware, phishing attempts, and other cybersecurity attacks.
The acquisition of Mandiant, according to Google, underscores its commitment to improving its security offerings in order to better protect and advise customers for both on-premises and cloud environments.
In 2021, Microsoft made two significant acquisitions to improve the security of its Azure cloud service. To begin, Microsoft acquired CloudKnox Security, a provider of Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) technology, in an effort to provide customers with unified privileged access and cloud entitlement management across their multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments.
RiskIQ, a threat intelligence and attack surface management service, was another important security acquisition for Microsoft. The company’s offerings are designed to help businesses assess the security of their entire attack surface, which includes Microsoft, AWS, and other cloud services, as well as on-premises and supply chain systems. They can identify and remediate vulnerable IT components before they are exploited by attackers.
Wickr, a firm that provides an encrypted messaging platform used by businesses and government agencies, was acquired by AWS. AWS receives advanced security features for messaging, voice and video chatting, file sharing, and collaboration as part of the deal, the specific terms of which were not disclosed.
Rise of the Cloud
Given the continued growth of the cloud and the rise in cyber threats, all of these transactions make sense. According to Gartner, cloud services are becoming the “centerpiece of new digital experiences,” as a result of the pandemic and the surge in digital services.
According to Peter Firstbrook, Research Vice President at Gartner, global public cloud investment increased by 23 percent in 2021, driven by increased digital services to replace person-to-person services and the migration of existing IT assets to the cloud to enable better availability.
Increasing Robotic Processing Automation (RPA) for service and support, adding new cloud storefronts, migrating existing services to the cloud to support newly remote workers, and using collaboration tools and desktop as a service are all examples of how companies are leveraging the cloud.
Firstbrook says “Most of these migrations were already happening, but the pandemic accelerated the migration to cloud in many organizations,”
The firm predicts that Global cloud revenue is expected to reach $474 billion this year, up from $408 billion in 2021. Cloud revenue is expected to surpass non-cloud revenue in relevant enterprise IT markets during the next few years, according to Gartner analysts. According to the firm, more than 95 percent of new digital workloads will be deployed on cloud-native platforms by 2025, up from just 30 percent in 2021.
The firm warns that organisations around the world are confronting sophisticated ransomware, attacks on digital supply chains, and deeply embedded vulnerabilities in a recently released report outlining the top security and risk management trends for 2022.