Using replication technology to ensure cloud-based IoT security can be maintained at scale

How long can today’s cloud security systems cope with the growing mass of connected devices and users, the continued expansion of the IoT, and the expectation that remote workforces will become a permanent trend? In theory, cloud security systems can scale indefinitely, but the evidence is that there comes a point when the volume of devices and users means that protecting all those in a linear way becomes impossible and protection is destabilised. 

The challenge of maintaining security in the cloud at scale is due to the way it is structured: part of computing capacity focuses on functions, and the other on synchronisation of security instances and exchange operational data with them, for example, to share malware definitions.

As numbers of end points increase, more security instances are required to cope with the growing volume of data. However, at the same time, the number of direct connections that each security instance has to make to all the other instances in the system to ensure synchronisation also grows. So, the sheer volume of computing power required to maintain those connections becomes huge.

If the system is focused on synchronising security instances, then the system’s functionality capacity is compromised. In the worst case scenario, there would no longer be any free computing power available to analyse and secure data traffic.  Plus, at that point, adding new instances does not help either: even newly-added instances would immediately be occupied with synchronisation, so the security system’s effectiveness would no longer increase proportionally to the amount of newly added security instances.

According to McKinsey, the worldwide number of IoT-connected devices is projected to reach 43 billion by 2023, an almost threefold increase from 2018. Given that the number of end points is only expected to increase, it is essential to find new ways in which to address the security risk. While it is hard to put an exact number on the point at which security becomes destabilised — as multiple factors are involved — 10 million could well be that number. For a mobile provider, an ISP, or any company supporting large volumes of end points, 10 million is a number that can be easily reached soon, if not already.

Large telecommunications providers offering integrated security services, for example, have to process huge amounts of data from their customers and their customers‘ connected devices, often up to a hundred million users in regions like Asia-Pacific. 5G technology will exacerbate the issue, when masses of Industry 4.0 sensors and other IoT components will go online in customers’ networks. Clearly, cloud-based networks are the only viable method to support all those end points, which is why it is essential to find new ways to address cloud-based security.

One answer to solving the cloud security at scale challenge is through using replication technology, or more specifically, through replication groups.  More than just theory, it is already being rolled out in the networks of some mobile network operators and ISPs in Asia Pacific. 

Replication — sharing of information to multiple remote sources to ensure consistency— in computing is well-established, and the concept of grouping of replication also exist. In a cloud-based security system, that same idea can be used to create replication groups.  Each group bundles together a number of security instances, but with a limit that cannot be exceeded. Synchronisation of instances only takes place within the instances belonging to the same group. 

So how does that work in terms of keeping the whole system secure? The answer is that each security instance belongs not just to one replication group, but to two, so that information each instance receives from the first group is passed on to the second one.