As more businesses move their workloads to the cloud, maintaining strong security becomes a critical requirement. Azure has a number of built-in features and third-party tools available to help businesses protect their virtual machines and data. Here are a few ways to secure your Azure virtual machines.
Built-in Azure Security Features
Azure provides several native security features to help you protect your virtual machines.
1. Network Security Groups (NSGs)
Azure Network Security Groups are one of the essential tools for securing virtual machines on Azure. NSGs allow administrators to set up inbound and outbound rules to ensure network traffic is only allowed to and from authorized sources.
2. Azure Security Center
Azure Security Center is a powerful tool combining machine learning and security best practices to help protect virtual machines from cyber-attacks. Security Center provides security recommendations, threat detection, and real-time monitoring services.
3. Azure Identity Protection
Azure Identity Protection provides administrative users with a one-stop shop to manage user identities across all your Azure products. It continuously monitors login and authentication events and alerts administrators if risky conditions are detected.
Third-Party Tools
Azure also offers third-party solutions that integrate with Azure to strengthen virtual machine security.
1. Barracuda Networks
Barracuda provides a suite of cloud security products specifically designed for Azure. Their solutions include web application firewalls, anti-virus, anti-spam, and intrusion detection systems (IDS) to help protect VMs from the latest threats.
2. Symantec
Symantec’s Endpoint Protection for Azure enhances your VM security by providing comprehensive protection against threats. From malware to zero-day attacks, Symantec protects Azure VMs at the hypervisor level.
3. Alert Logic
Alert Logic solutions for Azure provide continuous monitoring, detection, and response to protect your VMs from unauthorized access, data breaches, and other security threats.
Final Thoughts
Taking the security of your Azure virtual machines seriously is a must. By leveraging the built-in security features of Azure and third-party tools like Barracuda, Symantec, or Alert Logic, you can add another layer of protection to your virtual machines — ensuring your data is secure at all times.