Sentry for ODC: Advanced security for mission-critical dev

Cloud-native development is used for building and updating applications quickly, while improving quality and reducing risk. It is fast becoming a cornerstone of modern application development. This year, in a survey of companies that use cloud-native resources, 60% said that more than 50% of their applications are currently architected using cloud-native. This rises to 77% when organizations project two years into the future.

With this shift comes a new set of security challenges that IT and security managers must address. This blog explores how Sentry for OutSystems Developer Cloud (ODC) can help IT managers safeguard their data and other assets while leveraging the power of cloud-native low-code for mission-critical application development when standard security measures are insufficient.

Addressing security challenges in a cloud-native world

Recent studies have revealed alarming statistics: 89% of security exposures are found in cloud environments rather than on-premises, and 80% of organizations now host sensitive data in the cloud. Furthermore, container-based vulnerabilities, insecure network connections, and data breaches rank among the top security concerns for companies utilizing cloud-native development platforms.

Sentry for ODC, a comprehensive cloud-native security service, is designed to tackle these challenges head-on, adding the extra layer of protection needed for applications that access sensitive and confidential data. It provides tools to manage above-average compliance and security needs while developing your business-critical cloud-native apps. Let’s explore some of its top benefits.

Facilitating compliance and security audits of applications

Cloud security audits are systematic evaluations of an organization's cloud computing environment, services, and practices. They help ensure the cloud environment meets industry standards and regulatory requirements and effectively mitigates potential risks.

A security audit, whether internal or external, thoroughly evaluates a company's and its suppliers' security systems against specific criteria. It ensures that your systems are compliant and safe, helping to identify and address any potential weaknesses before they become serious threats. The same happens with your apps.

Therefore, these audits are critical for any organization. Demonstrating compliance with regulations and laws showcases robust security practices. On the flip side, failing a security audit can expose dangerous vulnerabilities and pose significant risks. Regarding applications, security can make or break your user experience, trust, and loyalty.

With Sentry, you can use the development platform that adheres to numerous global, industry, and administrative security standards and privacy laws, supporting you in building protected and compliant applications. This includes SOC 2 Type II attestation, an assessment showing that OutSystems has the controls to protect your sensitive business data thoughtfully. If you are working with government agencies or critical public services in Spain, Sentry also complies with the Esquema Nacional de Seguridad (ENS) standards, opening doors for expanding your services.

Also, ODC Sentry provides customers with compliance documentation and reports to support security audits, whether internal or external. IT managers can access compliance documentation directly, including the SOC 2 Type II report, and use it to demonstrate how secure the platform is. This openness allows you to confidently build mission-critical apps while staying aligned with your security department or regulatory requirements.

Elevated protection: Automated monitoring and security

In the cloud, security threats can emerge anytime, leaving security specialists concerned about whether they have enough security in place. Sentry for ODC provides round-the-clock monitoring and protection, ensuring that the platform remains secure at all times.

Identifying potential threats

One of Sentry's key features is its intelligent real-time antivirus scanning. It detects unexpected, unauthorized, or malicious activities in ODC services and networks, including automatic, continuous scans of Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2) instances, Kubernetes, and containerized infrastructure. By leveraging global lists of known malware, Sentry can identify and mitigate potential threats using multi-layered defense mechanisms.

Advanced intrusion detection capabilities

Moreover, Sentry incorporates advanced intrusion detection capabilities. By monitoring network traffic and system events, it can identify illicit activities and potential attacks at the network perimeter and critical points. This proactive approach helps prevent integrity loss by detecting unexpected endpoint communication, abnormal commands, and anomalous behavior that could signal an impending attack.

Stopping the spread of malicious actions

Sentry also helps ensure that threats in the runtime, such as unexpected or abnormal actions, are instantly identified and prevented from spreading. The runtime monitoring observes and analyzes operating system-level, networking, and file events to help you detect potential threats such as file access, process execution, command line arguments, and network connections

Self-service security: Customizable app protection

Every organization has unique security requirements, and Sentry for ODC recognizes this need for flexibility.

IP filtering is a powerful instrument that allows you to control what IP traffic will be allowed into and out of your application. It helps improve the security of your applications by eliminating spam, preventing fraud, or blocking unwanted geo-focused audiences. With Sentry, you can create rules in ODC that selectively allow or block access based on IP addresses, all without requiring a VPN. This granular control can be easily applied to all applications and is configurable by stage, allowing you to adapt security measures as your development process progresses.

By tailoring these rules to your specific requirements, you ensure that your applications are protected in a way that aligns with your organization's unique risk profile and compliance obligations.

The guardian for your business-critical cloud-native development

As cloud-native development evolves, our approach to security must keep pace. Organizations need the ability to choose security tools and practices that best suit their needs and provide peace of mind. Sentry adds robust, flexible, and comprehensive protection to the security features of OutSystems Developer Cloud, tailored to the unique challenges of the cloud-native landscape for security-sensitive businesses.

By facilitating compliance, enhancing protection, and offering self-service security capabilities, Sentry empowers organizations to confidently use OutSystems to build mission-critical applications. Explore Sentry for ODC today and take the first step towards more compliant and secure cloud-native applications.