How To Leverage Cloud Analytics to Detect and Prevent Cybersecurity Threats in Real-Time

Today, cloud environments are more complex than ever. Organizations are navigating multicloud, multi-tenant, multi-national, and multi-business unit landscapes. On top of this, the speed of fluctuation in usage and cloud consumption adds another layer of complexity. This increases an organization’s attack surface, leaving it more vulnerable to cyber-attacks and data breaches that can cost business millions of dollars.

Microsoft Azure gave some interesting insights at the start of 2025. The cloud computing platform reported that towards the end of 2024, it was mitigating up to 3,800 attacks daily, and 20% of those were large-scale attacks comprising more than one million packets per second (pps). It’s therefore more important than ever to utilize cloud analytics tools to mitigate risk. These tools help CISOs and their teams to gain real-time insights and comprehensive visibility to proactively detect threats before they can cause harm.

Here are five tips to ensure best practice when leveraging cloud analytics to detect and prevent cybersecurity threats:

1. Implement Continuous Security Monitoring (CSM) and Real-Time Alerts: CSM tools are essential for early detection and swift response to potential threats. Cloud analytics play a crucial role in this process by continuously monitoring your environment and setting up real-time alerts for any suspicious activities or anomalies. This is especially important in complex cloud environments where workloads are constantly being moved, and user licenses are frequently added or removed.

Real-time alerts enable security teams to respond immediately to potential threats, minimizing the impact of cyber-attacks. For example, if an unusual login attempt is detected, an alert can be triggered, allowing the security team to investigate and take appropriate action. This proactive approach helps prevent security breaches before they occur.

2. Utilize Machine Learning and Behavioral Analysis: Machine learning and behavioral analysis are powerful tools for predicting and preventing cybersecurity incidents. These technologies use algorithms to analyze massive data sets in real-time, identifying patterns and detecting anomalies that may indicate security threats.

Cloud analytics enhances these capabilities by providing the data needed for machine learning models to learn and improve. For instance, behavioral analysis can track user behavior over time, identifying deviations from normal patterns that could signal a potential threat. By leveraging cloud analytics, organizations can gain deeper insights into user behavior and detect threats more accurately.

3. Maintain Comprehensive Activity Logs: Activity logs provide detailed information about system operations, making troubleshooting faster and more efficient. Cloud log management tools can analyze logs from various sources, correlate events, and provide an overall view of system operations.

Maintaining comprehensive activity logs is crucial for forensic analysis and auditing. Cloud analytics can help by aggregating and analyzing log data, providing insights into who did what and when. This level of detail is essential for identifying the root cause of security incidents and ensuring accountability.

To maximize the effectiveness of activity logs, organizations should ensure notifications are switched on within their log management platform. This way, they can be alerted to any suspicious or unusual activity in real-time. Additionally, it’s important to retain activity logs for the recommended length of time for the log type, to ensure that historical data is available for analysis.

4. Enforce Strong Identity and Access Management (IAM): IAM is a critical component of cloud security, and can help protect organizations from up to 600 million identity attacks per day. Implementing robust IAM policies helps control access to cloud resources and reduces the risk of intrusion, data loss, or ransomware attacks.

Cloud analytics enhance IAM by providing visibility into access patterns and identifying potential security risks. For example, analytics can track login attempts, flagging any unusual activity that may indicate unauthorized access. By using a zero-trust model, including multi-factor authentication (MFA) and least privilege principles, organizations can minimize the risk of unauthorized access.

5. Establish Comprehensive Cybersecurity Training and Upskilling with Advanced Analytics Tools: Back in 2019, Gartner claimed that 99% of all cloud security failures would be the customer’s fault by 2025, primarily due to a lack of full visibility and understanding of their complex cloud environments. Businesses must gain a deep understanding of their data and have speed to insights to effectively secure and control their cloud infrastructure. This feat cannot be achieved alone or with sole reliance on native security tooling.

By combining comprehensive visibility with advanced analytics tools, organizations can upskill their workforce, reduce the risk of customer error, and maintain a secure cloud environment. This proactive approach not only enhances the ability to detect and respond to threats in real-time but also fosters a culture of continuous improvement and security excellence.

Through continuous monitoring, machine learning, and strong identity management, IT security teams can ensure a secure and compliant cloud environment that reduces the chance of customer error. Cloud analytics provide real-time insights and proactive threat detection – essential for preventing cybersecurity threats and protecting cloud infrastructure.

By following these best practices, organizations can leverage cloud analytics to enhance their cybersecurity measures, ensuring that they stay ahead of potential threats and maintain a secure cloud environment.

About the Author

Laurence Dale is CISO at Surveil – an analytics and insights engine – which can help optimize IT spending to reduce waste and unlock funds for investment in crucial cyber defenses. Throughout his 25-year technology career, Laurence has gained invaluable global experience through several senior IT leadership roles. Laurence has been responsible for driving the digital, security, and commercial capabilities of multi-national organizations across the FMCG, technology, and manufacturing industries, as well as the UK public sector. In 2017, Laurence took the position of Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Essentra PLC., where he led the cyber-risk and privacy management transformation programs. This was followed by a promotion to Group IT Director (interim CIO), leading the global IT team through two major divisional divestments.

Laurence’s LinkedIn page can be found