What is The Cloud?
When people say “the cloud,” they usually mean one or more of these at once:
Infrastructure cloud (IaaS): VMs, networks, storage
– AWS, Azure, GCP
Platform cloud (PaaS): managed runtimes, databases, functions
– Azure App Service, AWS Lambda
Application cloud (SaaS): business apps
– M365, Google Workspace, Salesforce
Data cloud: data stored, moved, or processed off-prem
Cloud security breaks down by where the control is applied and what it’s protecting.
Security of the cloud
“Is the cloud itself secure?”
This is the part customers don’t control.
Owned by the cloud provider
Physical data centers
Hypervisors
Core networking
Hardware lifecycle
Examples
AWS securing its data centers
Azure securing the virtualization layer
This is not what Network Box USA sells
(But vendors love to blur this line.)
Security in the cloud
“What’s running inside your cloud environment?”
This is where customers are responsible, and where most breaches happen.
Includes these:
-
VM security (EDR/XDR)
-
Cloud workload protection (CWPP)
-
Identity & access (IAM misuse, credential theft)
-
Misconfigurations (open S3 buckets, exposed RDP)
-
East-west traffic inside the cloud
-
Logging, detection, response
Tools / Capabilities:
-
SIEM ingestion of cloud logs
-
SOC monitoring
-
Threat hunting
-
Incident response
Network Box USA absolutely operates here
This is often called:
-
Cloud workload security
-
IaaS / PaaS security
-
Cloud detection & response (CDR)
Security for the cloud
“Controls designed specifically to protect cloud usage”
This is cloud-aware security, not just lifted from on-prem.
Includes these:
CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management)
Identity-first security
Policy enforcement
Configuration drift detection
Secure baselines across tenants
Examples:
Detecting misconfigured storage
Enforcing MFA
Monitoring admin activity
Preventing privilege escalation
This is the layer people think CASB covers, but this is broader.
Network Box USA does this as outcomes, not buzzwords.
Security through the cloud
“Security that is delivered via cloud infrastructure”
This is about how the security service itself is provided.
The cloud is the platform used to deliver protection, visibility, and response.
This includes:
Cloud-hosted SOC tooling
Cloud-native detection engines
Centralized cloud analytics
Cloud-delivered updates and intelligence
Global cloud-based visibility and response
Importantly:
- Security is not tied to a physical appliance
- Not bound to a customer’s location
- Delivered as a service
This is exactly how NBUSA operates.
This is sometimes (poorly) labeled:
“Cloud-delivered security”
“Security as a Service”
“Platform-based security”
Security around the cloud
“What touches the cloud?”
Security that connects users, endpoints, and environments to cloud-delivered protection
Endpoints reporting to cloud SOC
Hybrid networks
Remote users
Branch offices
This is where identity + endpoint + network converge.
NBUSA ties this together under one SOC and one response model.
Network Box USA secures workloads in the cloud, enforces controls for the cloud, stops threats through the cloud, and ties it all together under a single 24×7 SOC.
From prevention, to detection and response, we deliver cloud security outcomes across every layer clients control.
