E-Business
Why Your Company Needs Cloud Visibility
As organizations migrate to the cloud, they outsource the management of their computing infrastructure to cloud service providers. These specialized firms take care of the complex engineering involved, and allow their client businesses focus on their core operations.
But there’s often a tradeoff involved. When you ask cloud firms to look after segments of your IT, you risk losing your hold on the system. You may be unable to tell where critical functions are located, or where a security breach has occurred.
The IT person has a phrase for this. It’s called a loss of cloud visibility.
What is Cloud Visibility?
Cloud visibility is having a good view of the activity in your cloud, such that you can spot inefficient performance and security lapses in your cloud setup. It’s being able to access the data you want from your clouds.
You can maintain high visibility of your IT environment if the supporting infrastructure is located on-premise. In this scenario, you have complete control of your security. You can implement measures to keep costs down. And you could also assess performance in real time, and enforce corrections as quickly as you like.
But with the cloud, there’s a potential limit to your powers. A service provider runs your cloud setup on your behalf. They control the data centers that store your data, and are also in charge of the data that travels through their networks.
Cloud visibility is about retaining a good deal of your IT infrastructure while they are hosted by an expert third party—a blending of the benefits from both on-premise setups and service provider’s data centers.
Why is Cloud Visibility Important?
We have already hinted at some of the benefits of greater cloud visibility. Let’s look at them in a little detail:
- Performance Tracking
You may think that you don’t need to actively monitor the performance of your clouds or networks if there’s a specialized service provider doing this for you.
But there are performance issues that may arise, which you will only be able to solve if you have good visibility of what goes on with your cloud.
Here’s an example. You may want to know what your cloud traffic is like. If there’s a fall in cloud traffic, it could indicate deteriorating quality of service to your customers from your end. But unless you’re tracking this, you may not be aware that it’s happening.
- Security
Firewalls and threat detection systems will work for on-premise computing infrastructure. But it’s not sufficient for cloud environments. Because cloud infrastructure is sprawling and elastic, your security team may find it hard to watch over everything that goes on with it.
If you achieve greater visibility of your cloud, you will be better able to spot security lapses and fix them soon enough.
- Managed Costs
Increased visibility lets you discover underutilized resources and waste in your cloud setup.
For instance, there may be unused capacity in your cloud. Or a significant amount of workloads on your clouds could be non-productive. You will be paying for these things, despite the fact that they aren’t contributing to growth in your organization.
When you have a good view of the underutilization or excess capacity in your systems, you can adjust them to improve efficiency and scale back capacity. This saves you time and money.
What Hinders Cloud Visibility?
These are some of the factors that restrict cloud visibility.
- Scale
The cloud is attractive because of its scalability. But scaling up comes with some risks. If you increase capacity, you will have a broader spread of infrastructure to monitor. You could even be managing multi-clouds. That’s more difficult to manage than a fixed on-premise data center.
An expanded IT infrastructure throws up security challenges as well. When there are so many different segments to look after, it’s possible that certain security vulnerabilities will go undetected. It will be difficult to achieve a uniform application of security policy.
Even when your team detects a problem, they could struggle to locate the source because of the scale of the cloud setup.
- Control
Many businesses assume that it’s alright to relinquish control of their cloud to managed service firms. But this approach can be counterproductive.
Companies that use public cloud don’t own the data centers on which their data gets stored. They also don’t control the networks that their data runs through. This automatically limits what they can learn about their clouds.
There’s nothing wrong with cloud service providers managing and running cloud setup on a company’s behalf. That company will benefit from their expertise, and from the time and resources that it will save by outsourcing to them. But this doesn’t mean that it should stop paying attention to its clouds.
- Inadequate Visibility Tools
There are tools that allow you to monitor your workloads on cloud platforms. But it’s not enough to just have a tool. It has to be something that you as a customer can use. Some cloud service providers will avail their clients of visibility solutions, but these are often not service-centric enough to work for clients.
The effort required to evaluate and choose visibility tools may also discourage businesses from using them.
How to Improve Your Cloud Visibility
These are the steps you can take to improve cloud visibility.
- Adopt a Shared Responsibility Model
Service providers will usually take care of the security surrounding your cloud. But it’s up to you to regulate what happens within your cloud environment. This is what a shared-responsibility model in cloud service provision looks like.
Your in-house IT team has a role to play here. They should track your data, applications, and user activity within your organization. This lets you restrict the room for malicious actors to break into your networks.
- Use Cloud Integration Solutions
The sheer variety of applications that run on your cloud could make it difficult for you to gain cloud visibility. You can deal with this issue by using a cloud integration platform. This solution enables real-time exchange of data between your on-site and cloud environments, as well as between various applications that your organization uses.
- Train Your Team
Some of the issues you encounter with data and traffic monitoring may be happening because your employees aren’t skilled enough to manage the cloud environment.
This is something you want to fix, even before introducing cloud integration or monitoring tools. When your IT team is properly trained, they will be more efficient at monitoring your cloud resources.
Conclusion
Most discussions about cloud visibility focus on the technologies that can make it work. But trust between cloud service providers and their clients is also important. It’s key to implementing the shared responsibility that both you and your cloud service provider should have towards your infrastructure.
Layer3 takes this approach seriously. As a cloud service provider, we have served both clients in both the public and private sectors. No two organizations are the same. That’s why we work with each one of them to plan and deploy solutions that they meet their peculiar needs.
If you want a cloud provider partner that’s as much a partner as a vendor to your business, you can reach out to us. Send your questions via email to enquiry@layer3.com.ng, and we will respond in the shortest possible time. To request a free demo of our services, contact us here.
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has called for the withdrawal of the amendment of the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 because it seeks to regulate the activities of bloggers operating within the territorial boundaries of Nigeria.
The organisation in its letter urged Mr Godswill Akpabio, Senate President, and Mr Tajudeen Abbas, Speaker of the House of Representatives, to “immediately withdraw the repressive bill.”
The titled A Bill for an Act to Amend the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023, to Mandate the Establishment of Physical Offices within the Territorial Boundaries of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by Social Media Platforms and for Related Matters among others intends to regulate bloggers, including by requiring all bloggers to register local offices and join recognised national association for bloggers.
Currently, the bill has passed its first and second reading in the Senate.
In the letter signed its deputy director, Mr Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP asked Mr Akpabio and Mr Abbas “to ensure that any amendment to the Nigeria Data Protection Act promotes and protects the rights of bloggers and other journalists and does not undermine the fundamental human rights of Nigerians.”
It demanded an end to “the imposition of unnecessary restrictions on the rights of Nigerians online and Internet-based content.”
In the letter dated April 12, 2025, the group said, “This bill is a blatant attempt to bring back and fast-track the obnoxious and widely rejected social media bill by the back-door.”
“If passed, the bill would also be used to ban major social media platforms—including Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, TikTok, and independent bloggers if they ‘continuously fail to establish/register and maintain physical offices in Nigeria for a period of 30 days.
“Lawmakers should not become arbiters of truth in the public and political domain. Regulating the activities of bloggers and forcing them to associate would have a significant chilling effect on freedom of expression and lead to censorship or restraint.
“Should the National Assembly and its leadership fail to withdraw the bill to regulate the activities of bloggers, and should any such bill be assented to by President Bola Tinubu, SERAP would consider appropriate legal action to challenge the legality of any such law and ensure it is never implemented in the public interest,” the organisation warned.
National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has issued a public advisory warning Nigerians about a fraudulent website impersonating the Google Play Store.
Mrs Hadiza Umar, head of Corporate Affairs and External Relations at NITDA, made this known on Friday in Abuja.
Umar stated that the fake website was distributing a new malware strain known as the Play Praetor Trojan.
“Cybercriminals are using fraudulent websites designed to mimic the Google Play Store to lure victims into downloading malicious applications,” she said.
She explained that the fake Play Store links were being circulated through various social engineering tactics, including phishing emails, malicious advertisements, and SMS messages.
According to Umar, once the fake application is installed, the Play Praetor Trojan gives attackers unauthorised access to the victim’s device.
“This access can lead to data theft, credential harvesting, financial fraud, remote control of the device, and further malware deployment,” she warned.
She urged the public to download apps only from the official Google Play Store or other trusted sources.
Umar also advised users to verify app developers, read reviews before installation, regularly update their devices and apps to patch vulnerabilities, and use reputable mobile security solutions to detect and block threats.
A new report by Sophos, ybersecurity firm, has said that attackers primarily gained initial network access—56 per cent of all MDR and IR cases—by exploiting external remote services like firewalls and VPNs using valid credentials.
The 2025 Sophos Active Adversary Report details attacker behavior and techniques from over 400 Managed Detection and Response [MDR] and Incident Response [IR] cases in 2024.
According to the report, the combination of external remote services and valid accounts align with the top root causes of attacks.
For the second year in row, compromised credentials were the number one root cause of attacks [41% of cases]. This was followed by exploited vulnerabilities [21.79%] and brute force attacks [21.07%].
When analysing MDR and IR investigations, the Sophos X-Ops team looked specifically at ransomware, data exfiltration, and data extortion cases to identify how fast attackers progressed through the stages of an attack within an organisation.
In those three types of cases, the median time between the start of an attack and exfiltration was only 72.98 hours [3.04 days]. Furthermore, there was only a median of 2.7 hours from exfiltration to attack detection.
“Passive security is no longer enough. While prevention is essential, rapid response is critical. Organisations must actively monitor networks and act swiftly against observed telemetry.
Coordinated attacks by motivated adversaries require a coordinated defense. “For many organisations, that means combining business-specific knowledge with expert-led detection and response.
Our report confirms that organizations with proactive monitoring detect attacks faster and experience better outcomes,” said John Shier, field CISO.
The 2025 Sophos Active Adversary Report further reveals that attackers can move quickly, with a median of just 11 hours between initial access and a breach attempt on Active Directory, a critical asset in Windows environments.
Akira emerged as the most prevalent ransomware group in 2024, followed by Fog and LockBit, the latter still active despite a major takedown.
Attack detection has improved overall, with dwell time—the time attackers remain undetected—dropping from four days to just two, thanks largely to the inclusion of MDR (Managed Detection and Response) cases.
Dwell time varied depending on the type of case: it held steady at 4 days for ransomware and 11.5 days for non-ransomware cases in incident response (IR) investigations.
In contrast, MDR cases showed much faster response times—3 days for ransomware and just 1 day for non-ransom – ware attacks.
The report also highlights that 83% of ransomware deployments occurred outside local business hours, showing attackers favor overnight activity.
Additionally, Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) was exploited in 84% of cases, making it the most commonly abused Microsoft tool.
To strengthen their cybersecurity posture, Sophos advises organizations to take several key steps.
First, they should close any exposed Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) ports and implement phishing-resistant multifactor authentication (MFA) wherever feasible to reduce unauthorized access risks.
Additionally, companies should prioritize timely patching of vulnerable systems, especially those exposed to the internet. Deploying Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) or Managed Detection and Response (MDR) solutions with 24/7 monitoring is crucial.
Finally, having a well-defined incident response plan—and regularly testing it through simulations or tabletop exercises—can greatly improve preparedness for potential attacks.
KONFAM 89.5 FM Hits Airwaves in Lagos Tomorrow
CBN Pumps in Additional $150m into Forex Market to Safeguard Naira
Sanwo-Olu, Others Grace Launch of 50-Bed Hospital in Surulere by Avon Medical
GenCos Threaten Nationwide Blackout over N4 Trillion Debt
SERAP Calls for Withdrawal of Nigeria’s Data Act Amendment
E-Business1 day agoNITDA Warns Against Fake Google Play Store
News1 day agoNOA Uncovers Fraud by Banks, Universities in Students Loan Scheme
E-Financial1 day agoAfrica Loses $88.6Bn Yearly to Corruption- ECOWAS
E-Financial1 day agoUBA Redefines Banking with Next-Gen PoS Terminals and Revamped MONI App
General News1 day agoLagos Commences Integration of NIN with State Single Social Register
E-Financial1 day agoNIBSS Heads to Court to Recover N4Bn Lost due to System Glitch
E-Financial1 day agoSEC Bans Unregistered Digital Asset Exchanges, Online Forex Platforms
General News1 day agoNigeria Records $6.83Bn Balance of Payments Surplus in 2024 Amid Economic Reforms