{"id":105196,"date":"2020-01-15T06:00:47","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T14:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.paloaltonetworks.com\/blog\/?p=105196"},"modified":"2021-09-12T23:04:21","modified_gmt":"2021-09-13T06:04:21","slug":"cloud-saas-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/cloud-saas-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Your SaaS Security Checklist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Moving data and applications to the cloud is a natural evolution for businesses. Adopting new technologies that save money, bandwidth and resources is a smart choice, allowing companies and their employees to focus on what\u2019s important. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gartner.com\/en\/newsroom\/press-releases\/2019-11-13-gartner-forecasts-worldwide-public-cloud-revenue-to-grow-17-percent-in-2020\" rel=\"nofollow,noopener\" ><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gartner estimates<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paloaltonetworks.com\/cyberpedia\/what-is-saas\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">software-as-a-service<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (SaaS) revenues will grow to $151.1 billion by 2022. Organizations making the journey to the cloud should consider the benefits of SaaS, but also how to maintain SaaS security.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Benefits of SaaS Applications<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ease of use \u2013 User experience and acceptance are key when introducing new technology. SaaS applications are easy to use, making adoption within the organization a breeze.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Quick deployment \u2013 Installation and configuration of SaaS apps are quick and painless. By utilizing the cloud, the apps are easily accessible to users.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cost-effective \u2013 IT can quickly spin up the apps without needing to buy hardware. Additional cost savings come by reducing the time employees spend on installation, configuration and management.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Simple maintenance \u2013 Instead of having your IT department manually upgrade your apps, that responsibility falls to the SaaS vendors, saving you IT resources.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scalable \u2013 Since SaaS apps live in the cloud, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paloaltonetworks.com\/blog\/2019\/11\/cloud-security-scale\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">they are scalable<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, no matter how small or large your organization is. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paloaltonetworks.com\/cyberpedia\/what-is-branch-office-network-security\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Remote users<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are able to access the apps no matter their location.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The average employee <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blissfully.com\/saas-trends\/2019-annual\/\" rel=\"nofollow,noopener\" ><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">uses at least<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> eight applications, but as employees use and add more SaaS apps that connect to the corporate network, the risk of sensitive data being stolen, exposed or compromised increases. It is important to consider the security of the apps, what data they have access to and how employees are using them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SaaS Security Considerations<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vet an app\u2019s credibility, IT resilience and security before allowing it access to your data. If security is not a top priority for the SaaS vendor, then it is best to look for a different vendor. Make sure the vendor has a backup plan in the event of a disaster. You don\u2019t want a downed app affecting your business.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Visibility and control over unvetted SaaS apps that employees are using. Without knowing what apps employees are using, you won\u2019t be able to control what that app has access to.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Protect sensitive data from SaaS apps and limit what users can access. Access controls for employees, third parties and contractors are critical to protecting data and reducing data leaks. While sharing is a key benefit of SaaS apps, oversharing and accidental exposure of sensitive data can happen without proper control in place.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ensure proper protections are in place for when users access SaaS applications from untrusted devices.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Learn additional best practices and SaaS security tips in our e-book, \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/start.paloaltonetworks.com\/how-to-make-saas-safe.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Making SaaS Safe: 7 Requirements for Securing Cloud Applications and Data<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A brief overview of SaaS security considerations, useful when evaluating SaaS applications to deploy within your organization. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":663,"featured_media":103958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6768],"tags":[6888,1166,5609,149],"coauthors":[6846],"class_list":["post-105196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-secure-the-cloud","tag-branch-security","tag-cloud-security","tag-mobile-workforce","tag-saas","sase_category-use-cases"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/CS-trusting-the-cloud-r2d1-800x418.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/663"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105196"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105212,"href":"https:\/\/origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105196\/revisions\/105212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105196"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=105196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}