Putting Azure to work to reduce cyber risks: From panic buttons to predictive services

For large enterprises, cybersecurity risks continue to mount with every passing day, as hackers develop more sophisticated techniques and organization attack surfaces grow, with the expanded remote work and cloud usage.

In a bid to improve security Microsoft partners are turning to Azure as a platform upon which to provide services to strengthen and monitor system architecture, identity, regulatory compliance, application and data security, and more.

Audit and consulting firm PwC is one of the firms that has rolled out offerings built on Azure, and MSDW spoke with PwC partner, Paul Gaynor, about the role the cloud platform has come to play in the company's cybersecurity strategy. Summing up the company's approach with Azure-based security offerings, Gaynor told MSDW:

Big picture, we are developing managed services solutions on Azure, leveraging Sentinel as the backbone of ongoing relationships with our customer base. [Work with] Active Directory, DevOps and designing apps with Microsoft's security posture embedded as part of DevSecOps are all things we're doing with our clients today.

We are a company that helps our clients consume Microsoft assets. We're a build shop. We want to drive clients to achieve outcomes. To do that, sometimes there are enterprise apps that are perfectly made, other times we need to fill in the gaps…Broadly, we do design and we help customers manage security posture.

According to Gaynor, PwC views cybersecurity as an important part of its business. The firm relies in-part on Microsoft's built-in security posture with Azure Sentinel and advises customers on the best ways to leverage Active Directory.