Managing compliance and security for virtual machines can feel like an uphill battle, especially as your environment grows. Keeping every VM secure and compliant with various standards is no small task. It's all too easy for configurations to drift, for patches to be overlooked, or for new vulnerabilities to surface, turning one single mismanaged VM into a risk that could impact the entire system. This process is complicated further when you consider cloud vs on-prem setups, different operating systems, diverse application stacks, and constantly evolving threats. What are some of your best strategies or tools for maintaining continuous compliance and robust security across all your virtual machines without feeling overwhelmed? I'd really appreciate any insights you can share!
2 Answers
We just started using Secureframe for SOC 2 compliance because it integrates nicely with Azure and does daily syncs to check for any compliance issues. I'd definitely recommend it!
It's crucial to define what's acceptable for your VMs using Policy and Machine Configuration, and then have a remediation plan for any non-compliance. Check out the built-in policy definitions for Azure Virtual Machines and their documentation on machine configuration for more details!
Have you had much experience with machine configuration? I haven't really used it before and I'm curious how it compares to DSC or Ansible.