Home Learn Cyber Resilience in Hybrid Environments Cyber Resilience Strategy for Hybrid Environments Why hybrid infrastructure poses heightened risk – and how to build a cyber resilience framework to protect yours. Request demo Cyber Resilience in Hybrid Environments Overview Definition Risk Management Challenges Hybrid Enterprise Implementation Related Terms Resources Overview Ensuring Business Continuity and Rapid Recovery In a dangerous and unpredictable world, a cyber resilience strategy is your organization’s digital survival kit. Designed to for rapid recovery and business continuity following a cyberattack – and to prevent such incidents in the first place – the right cyber resilience framework can turn potential catastrophes into momentary inconveniences. But first, you have to address the unique cyber resilience challenges that hybrid environments pose. We’ll explain how to build and implement an effective cyber resilience framework to keep your hybrid environments up and running for your business. definition Understanding Hybrid Environments To understand what makes cyber resilience difficult to achieve in hybrid infrastructure, let’s first take a closer look at those environments. In a hybrid IT strategy, the organization uses a mix of on-premises and cloud-based solutions to develop and deploy applications, run workloads, store data, and deliver services. In one common version, legacy applications remain in the datacenter while DevOps teams build new applications in the cloud. In other cases, IT may decide to migrate some or all existing on-premises applications to a cloud provider’s infrastructure, or even rebuild them entirely as cloud-native versions. Companies can also choose to leverage cloud providers’ services for IT and security functions traditionally handled locally, such as software-defined networking, detection and response, and serverless computing. A hybrid IT strategy offers considerable advantages – especially around flexibility and agility. Organizations can strategically distribute their IT infrastructure across different environments according to the specific needs of individual workloads; for example, hosting critical applications or highly regulated data on-site while tapping into the cloud for other workloads. Scalability can be near-instantaneous without the need to provision additional hardware, and resources can be shifted easily across locations for optimal performance and availability. Cost is also a key factor, as organizations move from costly capital investment, on-site maintenance, and endless refresh cycles to fully managed resources on-demand. However, the cloud presents a number of drawbacks as well. Foremost is complexity, as IT teams work to manage and integrate disparate systems across on-premises and cloud platforms. An expanded attack surface – much of it inaccessible within the cloud provider’s own infrastructure – increases the potential for security incidents. That’s especially true given the gaps in security controls that can come with a decentralized infrastructure. Depending on your industry, cloud resources can introduce major regulatory headaches, and simply won’t be an option for some types of data and applications. You’ll notice that several of these drawbacks are related to security and risk. That brings us to cyber resilience. risk management Using Cyber Resilience Frameworks to Reduce Risk Whatever type of infrastructure a business uses – on-premises, all-cloud, or hybrid – building cyber resilience takes more than throwing together an assortment of security measures. To enable coherent protection and preparation across every part of the environment, mature organizations adopt a cyber resilience framework spelling out a comprehensive approach to managing cyber risk. The best practices detailed in these frameworks can help you minimize disruptions, protect your reputation, align with regulatory requirements, and stay agile in the face of evolving threats. Well-established frameworks to guide organizations in building cyber resilience include: • NIST Cybersecurity Framework – A set of requirements organized around five core functions: identify, protect, detect, respond, and recover. • MITRE Cyber Resilience Engineering Framework (CREF) – Specific resilience techniques like adaptive response, deception, and dynamic positioning. • UK Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) – 14 principles supporting four primary objectives: managing security risk, protecting against cyberattacks, detecting cybersecurity events, and minimizing incident impact. Frameworks like these are a vital starting point for developing your own cyber resilience strategy. However, applying them in a hybrid environment adds a degree of difficulty. Challenges Cyber Challenges in a Hybrid Environment The approach to cyber resilience might be more straightforward in a fully virtualized or on-premises IT environment. But in a hybrid environment, cyber resilience becomes especially challenging due to the diversity of on-premises and cloud technologies in use. Security teams must now account for: • Increasing complexity – With resources spread across multiple environments, there are more potential entry points for attackers. Cloud services and on-premises systems may call for different security measures, making it harder to take a holistic approach to protection. • Data movement and access – In hybrid environments, data flows constantly between systems and cloud platforms, often over public networks. Secure data transfer and consistent access management are mission-critical. • Visibility and monitoring – Gaining a complete, unified view of systems and data across on-premises and cloud-based resources is anything but simple. To identify anomalies and potential threats, SecOps teams have to correlate data from multiple sources, environments, and tools. • Incident response and recovery – Incident response plans have to account for both on-premises and cloud-based components. Enabling consistent and rapid data recovery across diverse environments takes careful planning and specialized tools. • Compliance and governance – On-premises and cloud data can fall under different regulations, adding to the compliance burden. In many industries and regions, data security and data sovereignty requirements place strict rules on where data may be stored and processed. • Flexibility and scalability – Shifting workloads between on-premises and cloud environments can alter security requirements. Your cyber resilience strategy has to be able to keep pace. Hybrid Enterprise Building a Cyber Resilience Strategy for a Hybrid Enterprise With these factors in mind, we can break down the key elements of a cyber resilience strategy – including special considerations for hybrid environments. • Risk Assessment Risk assessment focuses on identifying and evaluating potential threats and vulnerabilities. By analyzing their likelihood and impact, you can prioritize resources and effort where they’re most urgently needed. In a hybrid environment, this begins with taking a comprehensive inventory of all assets, both on-premises and in the cloud, including physical hardware, virtual machines, cloud services, and data repositories. You’ll also need to evaluate the risks associated with data movement between environments, including the potential for inconsistent security controls across platforms and any differences in compliance between local and cloud-hosted data. Security testing is a key part of risk assessment, helping you understand how effectively your data is protected against various types of threats. Penetration testing can help identify vulnerabilities in systems, networks, and applications before they can be exploited by attackers. AI can help you automate some aspects of security testing, such as vulnerability scanning, and analyze the results of pentests to identify patterns and trends. • Prevention Prevention takes the form of proactive measures and defensive technologies to stop potential attacks across your diverse environments. This includes deploying robust security controls such as firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, and encryption for both on-premises and cloud-based assets. A unified identity and access management (IAM) system that works seamlessly across platforms can support zero trust by enforcing the principle of least privilege across all your resources wherever they reside. Network segmentation, another element of zero trust, is more complex in a hybrid environment – but no less critical. To close security gaps promptly, IT teams should be sure to coordinate patching and updates across all systems, even when they involve different processes for on-premises and cloud infrastructures. Secure configuration management across all components of your hybrid environment can help verify that security baselines are consistently maintained. • Detection Detection in a hybrid environment calls for a unified approach to monitoring and threat intelligence across on-premises and cloud infrastructures. You’ll need an advanced security information and event management (SIEM) system capable of collecting and correlating data from diverse sources, including on-premises servers and network devices as well as cloud services. The anomaly detection algorithms powering your security controls will need to be sophisticated enough to understand normal behavior patterns across your entire hybrid infrastructure, including sudden changes such as auto-scaling behavior in the cloud. Continuous monitoring should emphasize unusual data movements or access patterns between on-premises and cloud environments. Hybrid infrastructure also calls for network and endpoint detection and response (NDR/EDR) tools that can operate effectively across both types of environments. • Response Response strategies in a hybrid environment need to be agile and coordinated across all infrastructure components. To prevent organizational silos from impeding resilience, incident response plans should clearly define roles and responsibilities for team members dealing with both on-premises and cloud-based incidents. These plans must account for the potential complexity of containing threats that may move between different environments. As you develop and equip your response capability, make sure your tools will work seamlessly across environments. For example, automated response features can accelerate remediation, but pay close attention to how they interact with different parts of the hybrid infrastructure. Forensic tools and procedures must be adapted to collect and analyze evidence from both physical and virtual environments. • Recovery Recovery – restoring operations and data following an incident – can be an especially delicate matter in a hybrid environment. You’ll need the ability to back up and restore data quickly and securely regardless of its original location, which may involve cross-platform data migration tools. Recovery plans should prioritize critical business functions and consider dependencies between on-premises and cloud services. Testing recovery procedures regularly is crucial, simulating scenarios that affect different parts of the hybrid infrastructure. The cloud does offer a few benefits to aid recovery, such as the ability to fail over to cloud services if on-premises systems are compromised or vice versa. • Testing When an incident occurs – not if – you don’t want your security and IT teams to be overwhelmed by the complexity of incident response in a hybrid environment. Regular testing of your security controls, including penetration tests, will uncover any vulnerabilities and help improve readiness. Tabletop exercises and simulated attacks will help identify gaps in your incident response plan and confirm that all team members understand their roles. The plan also should include procedures for post-incident analysis to learn from each event and improve future responses. • Adaptation Cyber resilience is an ongoing process, not a moment in time. You’ll need to continuously assess and evolve your strategy and security measures to address new threats and changes to your infrastructure, applications, and data storage strategy. This can include adopting new cloud security tools, updating on-premises security measures, or implementing new integration strategies between the two. Threat intelligence can help you proactively adjust defenses based on an understanding of how new attack vectors might exploit the unique characteristics of your hybrid environment. You also should foster a culture of continuous improvement, encouraging feedback from security teams and incorporating lessons learned from incidents to enhance overall resilience. • Employee Training A key but often overlooked element of any security strategy, employee training in a hybrid environment is critical to maintain cyber resilience across diverse platforms. Your programs should cover security best practices for both on-premises and cloud-based systems, including how to securely access and handle data across different environments by using VPNs, multi-factor authentication, and secure file sharing methods. In a zero-trust environment, employees need to understand why they may be required to repeatedly authenticate themselves. Phishing awareness training should include scenarios specific to hybrid environments, such as recognizing attempts to steal cloud credentials. Regular simulations and exercises should be conducted to test employees’ ability to identify and respond to threats in both on-premises and cloud settings. IT and security staff should receive specialized training on managing and securing hybrid environments. implementation Key Capabilities to Implementing Your Hybrid Cyber Resilience Plan While cyber resilience depends on comprehensive security controls, there are a few key capabilities with special relevance for hybrid environments. • On-demand Cleanrooms Isolated, malware-free environments will allow you to test recovery processes, conduct forensic analysis, and perform actual recoveries as part of a cyber resilience strategy. Delivered on-demand, these cleanrooms offer quick access to controlled spaces without the need for costly dedicated infrastructure. This capability is especially valuable for hybrid setups, as it provides a safe, scalable space separate from both on-premises and cloud production environments. • Continual Recovery Testing The dynamic and complex nature of hybrid environments makes continual, automated testing essential. By validating your ability to recover critical systems and data across both on-premises and cloud infrastructures, you can identify gaps in recovery processes, maintain the integrity of backed-up data, and build confidence in your ability to respond to cyber incidents. • Unified Monitoring and Threat Detection Silos and proliferating screens can slow response and impair understanding. Analysts need a comprehensive monitoring solution that incorporates advanced SIEM, anomaly detection, and threat intelligence across on-premises and cloud environments. With effective visibility across your entire hybrid infrastructure, security teams can quickly identify potential security incidents, correlate events from different sources, and respond to threats more effectively. • Automated Response and Orchestration Automated incident response capabilities that work across hybrid environments can significantly reduce response times and minimize the impact of cyberattacks, regardless of where an incident originates. This includes automated containment measures, orchestrated recovery processes, and integration with both on-premises and cloud-based security tools. • Secure data Backup and Recovery Robust backup and recovery solutions designed for hybrid environments are essential. These should include features like air gapping, immutability, and encryption to protect backups from tampering or corruption. The ability to quickly restore data and systems to either on-premises or cloud environments provides flexibility in recovery options and helps maintain business continuity. Building cyber resilience in a hybrid environment can seem daunting, and for good reason. But by focusing on the core principles of cyber resilience, and understanding how they apply in a more complex, dynamic, and diverse hybrid infrastructure, security and risk management leaders can develop and implement the right strategy to enable continuous business. It takes work – but for the organization, it can mean the difference between life and death. Related Terms What is a Data Cleanroom? Cleanroom recovery provides security teams with an isolated environment to perform investigations, find gaps in defenses, and safely recover data without risk of contamination. Learn more What is Hybrid Cloud? Hybrid cloud is IT architecture that combines at least one private cloud, also known as an on-premises data center, with one or more public cloud services. Learn more What is Virtualization? Virtualization is the abstraction of IT resources such as applications, servers, storage, desktops, and network components into self-contained software instances. Learn more related resources Explore related resources View all resources webinar Achieving Cyber Resilience for Hybrid Workloads Experts from ESG, Microsoft, and Commvault deep dive demo into data resilience and recoverability. Watch now Solution Brief Why Hybrid Cloud Cyber Resilience? Commvault has several options for backup storage to help customers meet their RPO and RTO objectives. Read more Solution Brief Cyber Recovery for Any Cloud, Any Workload, Anywhere Guide Navigating the challenges of hybrid cloud. Read more