Johannesburg, 02 Jul 2021
Nebula offers a unique set of next-generation technology solutions to give organisations enhanced capability to manage and optimise their technology and cloud spend, usage and performance. Its suite of products offers a range of powerful solutions to address various business technology needs, enabling enterprises to leverage the benefits of cloud and accelerate their digital transformation.
As a Netsurit client, Nebula was keen to try out the Netsurit Security and Operations Centre (NSOC).
NSOC is designed to provide proactive security monitoring and alerting for customers who have moved – or are in the process of moving – into the cloud. With a focus on Microsoft 365, Security and Azure, the solution specialises in proactively detecting potential security attacks. In other words, it prevents problems before they happen. The NSOC is run by a highly-skilled central team who oversee monitoring, maintenance and service enhancement.
“We wanted to test the benefits of this new product offering for our business,” says Andre Witte, Managing Director, SaaS at Nebula. “There are many Microsoft compliance, security and SSI portals that we needed to look at daily, which was proving to be time-consuming and laborious. The NSOC provides us with one centralised space to review all reports pulled from the various portals, instead of having to visit each portal individually. The NSOC allows you to focus more on actual alerts and mitigating the risks associated with these alerts. You can quickly ascertain where you need to focus – high risk versus low impact, or low impact but high risk. Also, Microsoft portals change so regularly that it becomes time-consuming to have to navigate to a new portal each time.”
Witte says Nebula has a much-improved view as a result of the NSOC, and that accessing data is so much easier. During the NSOC setup process, the company enabled Microsoft Cloud App Security (MCAS), which provides rich visibility, control over data travel, and sophisticated analytics to identify and combat cyber threats across all cloud services.
“This has given us a lot more visibility into user profiles, allowing us to build a normal baseline,” says Witte. “Once there is a deviation from this baseline, MCAS alerts us about the changes and Nebula can take action on those alerts, changes in behaviour, and changes in usage. For example, let’s say a user has been logging in from a specific IP address in Cape Town daily, and suddenly there is a random login from Russia or somewhere other than the norm. This can be quickly identified and acted upon.”
Witte says what he and his team appreciate the most about the NSOC is that you don’t know what you don’t know. The NSOC provides access to a risks analysis and features which empowers Nebula to increase its overall security position. With the Microsoft Security Administration Service, the business is safeguarded against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. As the window between an initial compromise and a full-scale attack is shrinking from months to hours, many companies cannot afford this risk. Having this service in a central facility allows the cost to be shared and thus significantly reduced.
“From a security perspective, the NSOC has become an important protector of our business and our data against unexpected problems and unwanted intruders. It makes our lives so much easier.”
Witte also noted that working with Jaco le Roux, Senior Cloud Infrastructure Consultant at Netsurit company Inobits, was easy and a pleasure. “It is amazing to work with someone who explains things well and ensures that the backend work is up to standard and provides meaningful data.”
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