Akamai expands cloud security solutions for AWS & Azure

Akamai Technologies has extended its Akamai Guardicore Segmentation solution to support agentless enforcement for cloud native resources in Amazon Web Services (AWS), enhancing its offerings in cloud environments.

The company also introduced new features to its Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) product, Akamai Enterprise Application Access, aimed at improving application performance and user experience.

These developments are in response to the growing threat landscape, highlighted by the Verizon 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report, which notes that nearly one third (32%) of cybersecurity breaches involved ransomware or extortion, ranking ransomware as a top threat in 92% of industries.

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is designed to assist organisations in addressing challenges associated with public cloud strategies, such as lack of visibility into application behaviour, configuration of disparate security policies across cloud providers, and governance issues between DevOps and SecOps teams. This solution now offers seamless microsegmentation for both multicloud and on-premises environments, complemented by agentless support for Platform as a Service (PaaS) resources across Azure and AWS.

"We're giving Akamai customers the visibility and security controls they need to protect their cloud environments – while ensuring a smooth single-pane-of-glass experience – by seamlessly delivering the applications and services users rely on," said Ofer Wolf, Senior Vice President, General Manager, Enterprise Security at Akamai. "Whether our customers are on-prem, in the cloud, or leveraging IaaS or PaaS capabilities, we're making sure they can focus on growing their business and serving their customers, not stress about their Zero Trust journey."

The benefits of Akamai Guardicore Segmentation in the cloud include agentless cloud native visibility and enforcement, which enables administrators to visualise cloud workloads using a near-real-time interactive map of true network flows. This helps understand application dependencies and brings together DevOps and SecOps teams in cloud network security governance. The solution's hybrid enforcement engine leverages multiple enforcement points, allowing organisations to easily define network policy intent, with the policy engine automatically determining the use of agent-based and agentless enforcement across the data centre. Additionally, integrated reputation analysis and DNS firewall capabilities aim to reduce detection and incident response time during a breach, while the scalable architecture ensures data remains within the cloud environment and scales as needed.

Akamai's Enterprise Application Access leverages the company's global infrastructure, offering global organisations secure access for their workforce through edge delivery and distributed cloud compute capabilities. This solution can function as a stand-alone option or integrate with the Akamai Guardicore Platform as part of the unified Zero Trust suite, supporting both UI, policy, and agent or agentless capabilities.

"Proximity matters when it comes to delivering Zero Trust Network Access that touches every employee in an organisation," Wolf commented. "With Enterprise Application Access, we're utilising Akamai Connected Cloud to help organisations deliver a fast and seamless experience for users that gives them access to the applications and services they need to do their jobs. Users expect business applications to start quickly and respond efficiently. Slow applications cause frustration and lead to an increase in IT support calls. With Enterprise Application Access, we're helping to eliminate that frustration."

The Gartner Hype Cycle for Zero-Trust Networking 2024 supports the effectiveness of cloud-based ZTNA offerings in improving scalability and ease of adoption for secure remote access, which enhance application performance and user experience. Deploying ZTNA close to application hosting locations ensures fast and responsive access, assisting organisations in resolving performance issues without the need for additional hardware costs or software deployment. This update includes edge transport for optimising performance within the application path and local PoPs for applying ZTNA policies locally, enhancing application performance by streamlining traffic routing.