Security best practices for IaaS workloads in Azure

Let's face it. Most people first embracing Azure do so through virtual machines and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). This fact is evident in hybrid scenarios where organizations want to slowly migrate workloads to the cloud. In such scenarios, it's important to follow the general security considerations for IaaS, and apply security best practices to all your VMs.

Microsoft has published guidance for this that can help. Some of the key points covered include:

• Protect VMs by using authentication and access control

• Use multiple VMs for better availability

• Protect against malware

• Manage your VM updates

• Manage your VM security posture

• Monitor VM performance

• Encrypt your virtual hard disk files

Cloud computing security is not something you can abdicate to Microsoft. You need to understand the shared responsibility model and apply security best practices in a way to protect your interests. Use their IaaS security guidance as a base for your own security practices.

Happy reading!