With full cloud adoption nearly complete in many companies, the focus is now turning away from adoption and migration to integration and security.
Many organisations (both large and small) began the last decade learning about the cloud and ended it finding the cloud an indispensable part of their business workflow.
At the end of 2018, the average employee used at least 8 different cloud apps in their daily workflow. Small businesses with up to 50 employees use an average of 40 different SaaS applications and enterprises of over 1,000 employees use over 200 different cloud apps.
That’s a lot of SaaS apps to keep track of! The challenge for many companies now becomes applying access and security policies across multiple cloud apps, all with their own architecture.
One of the ways you can reign in your SaaS tools and ensure you’ve not leaving any data at risk is to use a Citrix platform called Citrix Access Control for cloud application security.
How Does Citrix Access Control Work?
At any given moment you could have hundreds of employees accessing your business applications and data. Without visibility into that access and control over it, you’re at a major risk of a data breach.
77% of organisations adopting SaaS tools have experienced a security incident as a result.
What Citrix Access Control does is facilitate a defined strategy for managing SaaS applications to reduce risk and gain valuable insights. This includes cloud apps, cloud hybrids, and web-based apps.
Here are some of the capabilities that Citrix Access Control provides for companies.
Controls the Use of Unauthorised Applications
It’s not uncommon for employees to find an application on their own and begin using it in their workflow. But cloud applications that haven’t been properly reviewed or authorised can leave your network at risk of a breach.
Citrix Access Control gives you visibility into app use, including those that haven’t been approved. Security administrators can blacklist and whitelist URL categories, which will allow them to permit or deny access.
Enacts Cloud-wide Security Policies
What happens when a file that has a “do not copy” restriction applied in one application, is shared to another application without that capability? This can lead to data compromise and compliance issues.
This platform allows you to oversee all your SaaS and web apps as well as apply cloud-wide policies, such as:
- No copying/paste function
- Download restrictions
- Watermarking
Your document security becomes streamlined because you only have to add your policies in a single place, and they get picked up by all the cloud applications throughout your company infrastructure.
Full MFA and Microsoft Azure AD Support
Citrix Access Control supports Microsoft Azure Active Directory (AD) for multi-factor authentication (MFA). This allows you to add an important layer of security throughout your cloud applications using native one-time password.
Unified User Experience
When employees have to go through multiple login experiences for each of the different apps they use on a daily basis, this can negatively impact productivity.
Using Citrix Access Control allows you to provide a unified user experience. You both control access in a more streamlined way and offer your employees single sign-on (SSO), which can decrease the time it takes to sign into their work apps each day.
Improves Security of Remote Access
Remote access to company apps and data is a “must have” in today’s world. But securing all those remote connections can be fraught with risk.
Citrix Access Control takes the stress out of deploying a remote workforce by ensuring that your end users have access to the apps and data they need while keeping out unauthorised parties.
Assess Cloud Application Risk
A new cloud application that your company is reviewing may check the boxes when it comes to usability and features, but how secure is it?
You can use Citrix Access Control to evaluate SaaS apps and obtain risk assessments so you get full clarity into their security and how they may impact your organisation’s security compliance.
User Activity Reporting
Which of your productivity apps are employees using the most? Are enough employees visiting a non-productive website to warrant blacklisting it on your network?
These are just two examples of valuable insights you can gain using Citrix Access Control. The platform provides activity reporting on things like SaaS usage and which websites employees are visiting so you can make better decisions about your technology and how to deploy it.
Citrix analytics include:
- Security analytics
- Performance analytics
- Operations analytics
Learn More About Citrix Access Control for Cloud App Security
Is your organisation struggling with how to secure your use of the cloud? Our FutureRange experts can take a look at your current infrastructure and let you know where Citrix can help.
Contact us today to schedule a free consultation. Call +353 1 2960 560 or reach us online.
