Cloud computing offers a myriad of advantages for businesses, but its true potential is only realized when performance and availability are assured. While the scalability of cloud services is a key benefit, without reliable performance and availability, organizations risk missing out on resource optimization and may incur unnecessary costs for underutilized resources.
In addition, inadequate availability in the cloud jeopardizes the accessibility of cloud-based backups during disasters. Poor performance could further compromise the integrity of these backups, potentially leading to data loss and intellectual property issues. The absence of robust performance and availability hinders organizations from fully exploiting innovative technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, preventing them from staying at the forefront of technological advancements.
Recognizing the significance of performance and availability in cloud environments, the Center for Internet Security (CIS) has collaborated with the Microsoft Azure team to assess CIS Hardened Images for Linux with the Azure Monitor Agent.
Insights through Azure Monitor: Navigating Cloud Performance
Azure Monitor is a critical service that evaluates the availability and performance of applications and services within Azure. Leveraging telemetry, it provides a comprehensive overview of applications, enabling proactive issue resolution to enhance availability and performance. In the past, Azure Monitor utilized legacy monitoring agents for data collection. Now, the Azure Monitor Agent (AMA) handles these tasks seamlessly. AMA gathers data from guest operating systems of Azure and hybrid virtual machine images, feeding it into Azure Monitor to inform insights and services like Microsoft Sentinel.
AMA delivers various types of information to Azure Monitor, including logs and traces, facilitating the monitoring of health and performance at scale for Azure virtual machines (VMs), including Linux VMs.
Optimizing CIS Hardened Images for Linux with Azure Monitor
The testing process for CIS Hardened Images for Linux with Azure Monitor was seamless. The Azure team made necessary adjustments to AMA to accommodate the nuances across Linux distributions, ensuring no degradation of AMA functionality when installed on a CIS machine.
Post-AMA installation, the Azure team implemented changes to comply with CIS Benchmarks settings. These changes reinforced file and directory ownership permissions and ensured a loopback network setup of an AMA sub-component. With the testing phase concluded, AMA is now validated for successful deployment and overall functionality, covering end-to-end data flow for all data types on a variety of CIS Linux Hardened Images.
Continual Validation for Ongoing Security
The Azure team has integrated CIS Hardened Images into the pre-release validation process, ensuring ongoing re-validation when new AMA versions are introduced. This commitment prevents any regression in AMA functionality, providing assurance that pre-hardened virtual machine images for Linux will maintain their performance and availability in the evolving cloud landscape.
A Commitment to Secure and Available Products
The partnership between Microsoft and CIS remains steadfast, reflecting their shared commitment to enhancing the security and availability of products across diverse Linux environments, benchmarks, and settings. This collaboration underscores the dedication to continuous improvement and innovation, ensuring businesses can confidently harness the power of cloud computing in a secure and reliable manner.