Successful onboarding paths may also vary depending on other factors such as deployment models, tools, and API availabilities. However, the generic steps for successful onboarding can be defined as follows:
- Defined onboarding strategy: Develop a well-defined strategy and roadmap for onboarding multi-cloud accounts to the CSPM tool. Identify the sequence of cloud providers and accounts to be onboarded based on criticality, complexity, and business priorities.
- Pre-onboarding preparation: Gather all the necessary information, credentials, and access permissions required for onboarding. Ensure that you have the necessary administrative rights and privileges for the cloud accounts.
- Established connectivity: Configure the required connectivity between the CSPM tool and each cloud provider. This involves setting up API access, configuring credentials, and establishing secure communication channels.
- Account authentication and authorization: Define and implement the appropriate authentication and authorization mechanisms for each cloud account within the CSPM tool. This ensures that the tool can access and monitor the relevant resources securely.
- Resource discovery and mapping: Initiate the discovery process to identify and map all the cloud resources associated with each onboarded account. This includes virtual machines, storage buckets, databases, and networking components.
- Policy configuration: Define and configure security policies within the CSPM tool based on your organization’s requirements and compliance standards. This includes defining rules, thresholds, and checks to monitor for security and compliance violations.
- Testing and validation: Conduct thorough testing and validation of the onboarding process. Ensure that the CSPM tool accurately detects and reports security vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and compliance issues within the onboarded cloud accounts.
- Ongoing management and optimization: Regularly review and optimize the CSPM tool’s configuration, policies, and alerting mechanisms. Stay updated with the latest features and releases of the tool to leverage new capabilities for improved security and compliance management.