Cloud platforms are often described as “secure by default”, yet security incidents in regulated environments continue to stem from misconfiguration, excessive permissions and gaps in monitoring. The issue is rarely a lack of tooling — it is a lack of visibility, integration and operational ownership.
For organisations subject to GPG13 and NCSC guidance, secure cloud adoption requires more than configuration. It requires logging, monitoring and response capabilities that operate consistently and can be evidenced under audit.
The Cloud Visibility Problem
Cloud services generate vast amounts of security‑relevant data, including audit logs, identity events and threat findings. However, many organisations either collect too little data to investigate incidents effectively, or collect so much that meaningful signals are lost.
Visibility is not about volume. It is about collecting the right signals, retaining them appropriately, and ensuring they are accessible to security teams when incidents occur.
Native Tools Alone Are Not Enough
AWS and Microsoft provide strong native security services such as GuardDuty, Inspector, Security Hub and Defender. These tools are essential — but without integration into security operations, they often become isolated dashboards.
Common challenges include unclear ownership of findings, poor prioritisation, and difficulty extracting evidence for audit and assurance. Without central triage and response, cloud security controls cannot demonstrate their effectiveness.
Cloud Security as an Operational Capability
Effective cloud security treats cloud telemetry as a core input into security operations. This means:
- Centralised collection of cloud logs and findings
- Consistent triage and escalation through a SOC
- Correlation with identity and endpoint data
- Evidence‑led reporting aligned to GPG13 outcomes
This approach improves both incident response and assurance confidence.
Conclusion
Secure cloud is not a configuration state — it is an ongoing operational capability. Regulated organisations that design cloud logging and monitoring with assurance in mind are better prepared to detect incidents, recover services and demonstrate control effectiveness under scrutiny.
