Introducing Spectro Cloud Support with AccuKnox

Building the cluster with the right security tools and applications from day 1 is crucial for implementing robust security in enterprise-grade Kubernetes deployments. However, the task does not stop there; the next step is to keep the implementation updated as the cybersecurity landscape changes drastically over time​​.

The high complexity of distributed systems makes this difficult to implement successfully. Even after successful implementation, manually performing the day 2 maintenance tasks and keeping up to date reduces the productivity of seasoned professionals into mundane, repetitive tasks. AccuKnox has integrated with Spectro Cloud Palette to alleviate these issues, combining security with ease of management.

Let’s start with the management part.

Intro to Spectro Cloud

Spectro Cloud’s Kubernetes management platform, Palette, helps enterprises manage their Kubernetes Infrastructure at scale. The platform enables consistent cluster provisioning, robust management and monitoring capabilities, and integrations with popular platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft, VMWare, Canonical MAAS, and OpenStack.

Management with Spectro Cloud Palette

Maintaining a single or a few Kubernetes clusters might not seem very hard, but as the clusters increase in number, several challenges get introduced to the Kubernetes administrator:

• Reliable Provisioning: The admin must spin up and terminate each cluster without running into configuration issues or managing the operational complexity involved.
• Multi-Platform support: The admin will be required to be proficient in multiple platforms to be able to host and manage the clusters in various environments
• Management Overhead: As the cluster scales, operational overhead becomes daunting. Ensuring that all the necessary components are set up with the same configuration is also a concern for consistent performance and robust deployments.

How Palette Helps

• Deployment Stacks: Spectro Cloud Palette allows you to define stacks called ‘Cluster Profiles,’ which are a predefined set of tools or packages that must be installed in a cluster. For example, you can spin up a cluster with your favorite service mesh already running, along with an Nginx Ingress and maybe Grafana for monitoring. Integrating with infrastructure providers will simplify spinning up multiple clusters with identical components.
• Multi-Platform Integrations: Palette integrates with multiple service providers such as AWS, Azure, GCP, VMWare VSphere, Tencent, and OpenStack. It also supports the deployment and management of popular Managed Kubernetes services, such as AKS, GKE, and EKS. This allows provisioning clusters and maintaining them without being an expert on these platforms.

Easy Management: Palette handles all the heavy lifting, such as backups, certificate management, updates, and monitoring. Palette’s ability to manage upgrades and patching of the entire stack frees the administrators to focus on more productive tasks and improve the Kubernetes infrastructure.

Now that the complexities of managing a distributed system across multiple platforms have been solved, it’s time to focus on the security part.

Introducing AccuKnox 

AccuKnox is a CNAPP platform encompassing multiple security capabilities, including Application, Workload, and Infrastructure Security. With additional integrations supported by various security tools, it can provide complete security for an organization in a centralized location.

Security with AccuKnox

The Kubernetes-specific security capabilities stand out as the organization started with Kubernetes security in mind, and it has capabilities across different verticals to secure the clusters from various perspectives. For example:

• Static Scanning: Scan the container images and other artifacts for vulnerabilities and prioritize them accordingly.
• CI/CD Pipeline Security: AccuKnox can secure the entire CI/CD pipeline by integrating its scanners across the different stages of the DevOps Pipeline. This feature ensures that vulnerable applications do not enter your cluster.
• Admission Control and Configuration checks: The essentials for any Kubernetes environment are to reduce the attack surface and ensure that there are no open doors to your cluster hidden from view.
• Identity Management: A feature unique to AccuKnox that allows managing the RBAC implementation across clusters and setting up rules to enforce the least privilege.
• Inline Prevention at Runtime: AccuKnox’s differentiated capability leverages the open-source KubeArmor to define policies restricting activities inside a container or host. This is implemented at the kernel layer and can prevent attacks before they happen by denying access to unspecified activities and building the foundation for zero-trust security.

Zero Trust Security with Enterprise Management

Now that the introductions are over let’s examine how these two interact. Spectro Cloud Palette’s robust management capabilities combine with AccuKnox’s layered security model to provide an enterprise-grade hardened cluster that can be implemented and managed efficiently.

Deployment made easy: Palette is extensible and can define custom packs, which are preconfigured software bundles. These profiles can be reused as an ‘add-on’ for any cluster. The add-on profiles provided by AccuKnox allow connecting the clusters already being managed by Palette to the AccuKnox platform much more quickly by just specifying a name for the cluster.

Adding a Cluster Profile with KubeArmor operator

• Provisioned Security: As the cluster is provisioned, AccuKnox can be integrated into the initial deployment stack using Cluster Profiles. . This way, security can be implemented as soon as the cluster is spun up, with no deployment overhead. Now, security can be deployed together with the applications as they are created.
• Updates made easy: Security requires the latest updates to be introduced quickly to defend against rapidly evolving attacks. Integrating with Palette allows the agent updates from AccuKnox to be applied without operational hassle by updating the profiles in use across the clusters.

Conclusion

Spectro Cloud and AccuKnox integrate to provide robust security for enterprises minus the implementation overhead. 

Solving the complexity of implementation via Palette enables organizations to increase their focus on security. While focusing on security, the same professionals who were fated to repeat mundane tasks will now be able to work on implementing zero-trust security through AccuKnox as a strong foundation. This will encourage the organization to embrace security and start its zero-trust journey without stress.

To learn more about how AccuKnox can enhance your organization’s security:  Book a Demo or View Product Tour