Cloud access security brokers (CASBs) are increasingly important as endpoints flourish and organizations embrace a multi-cloud strategy for business applications and other workloads.

A CASB manages secure access between endpoints and cloud computing environments. The standalone CASB market is growing. Valued at US$11 billion in 2023, Mordor Research expects it to grow at 17% annually to reach US$24.2 billion by 2029 in alignment with the surge in adoption of various cloud-based services, along with growing concerns about data security and privacy. A CASB is also part of a broader security strategy that Gartner has dubbed the Secure Service Edge (SSE), which also integrates SWG and Zero Trust network access (ZTNA).

Like many security tools, a CASB can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud in as a hardware appliance, software-only, as a proxy, reverse proxy, or through specific APIs. CASBs can manage access for a broad range of endpoints, including corporate-owned devices or those managed outside the organization by third parties and employees, whether they on are on-premises or remote, including internet of things (IoT) devices.

These various endpoints connect to multiple cloud resources, including common productivity suites such as Microsoft 365 and customer relationship management (CRM) tools delivered in a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, such as Salesforce. Common collaboration tools such as Zoom and Slack also connect via many endpoints that could be managed by a CASB, which monitors everything that goes in or out. A CASB gives you visibility into what users are doing in the cloud, enforces your access control policies, and watches for security threats.

The original purpose of a CASB was to uncover shadow IT – unauthorized applications and cloud storage services deployed by employees that put corporate data at risk. CASBs are now a critical tool for security teams to uncover and monitor unauthorized or unmanaged cloud services as well as protect data as it is moved across hybrid / multi-cloud environments and remote work environments. CASBs also play an important role in complying with data privacy regulations and enforcing data privacy policies.

Any CASB you deploy should be able to give you comprehensive visibility into cloud usage, user activities, and data flows, while also allowing you to granularly control data access and user permissions as part of your overall data protection strategy to safeguard mission critical information across multiple clouds and endpoints.

A CASB not only touches all your endpoints, but must also integrate with your existing security tools, including identity management and single sign-on (SSO) tools, web application gateways firewalls, and endpoint protection.

Given that purchasing and integrating a CASB can be a complex endeavor, considering engaging with a managed security services provider who can help you audit your organization so that you select a CASB that addresses all your pain points and can scale with your business over time.