In a context where web and mobile applications play a central role in business operations, the reliability of authentication and user management mechanisms is a strategic concern. A rigorous, standardized approach mitigates the risk of data leaks, enhances regulatory compliance, and ensures a seamless user experience.

Cloud identity providers such as AWS Cognito, Azure AD B2C, or Auth0 offer proven, scalable security building blocks that are easy to integrate into custom projects, while outsourcing sensitive data handling to specialized services. This article outlines the best practices to adopt to secure your custom user identities and fully leverage cloud solutions.

Risks Associated with Poor Identity Management

Improper account management exposes your entire ecosystem to attacks and data leaks. The legal and reputational consequences for a business can be severe.

Data Leakage and Regulatory Non-Compliance Risks

When credentials are stored or processed directly in your code, any vulnerability can lead to massive personal data leaks. European and Swiss regulations require strict protection for sensitive data, such as credentials or biometric attributes, under penalty of substantial fines. Without a dedicated framework, security updates can become an uphill battle, leaving vulnerabilities unpatched long after they are released.

In-house encryption or password management mechanisms are often incomplete or misconfigured, increasing the risk of exploitation. Implementing third-party solutions validated by cybersecurity experts reduces the attack surface. By entrusting secret management to a specialized service, you benefit from regular updates and systematic penetration tests. This delegation minimizes human error and ensures ongoing compliance with security standards.

In the event of a confirmed breach, disclosure can trigger regulatory investigations, financial penalties, and negative media coverage. Swiss and European oversight bodies are ramping up security audits, particularly in sensitive sectors. Massive investments in remediation and post-incident communication become necessary, not to mention the loss of trust among partners and customers.

Spoofing and Identity Theft Attacks

Direct manipulation of tokens or access tokens within internal frameworks makes forging them easier. Attackers can elevate privileges or hijack legitimate sessions. Mobile applications not secured by cloud libraries are particularly vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks or reverse engineering.

Without robust key rotation and session revocation mechanisms, any compromised credential can remain active for extended periods. Users may find their accounts hijacked or fraudulent operations go unnoticed. The complexity of managing multi-device sessions increases the risk of overlooked blocks and attack propagation.

Using a cloud identity provider centralizes anomaly detection and triggers automated measures, such as instant token revocation or forced reauthentication. Behavioral indicators (e.g., geographic changes or access frequency) are analyzed in real time to protect your entire infrastructure.

Impact on Trust and Reputation

A Swiss healthcare services company saw the integrity of its patient platform compromised following a session-hijacking incident, leading to the disclosure of medical records. This example demonstrates that even isolated environments can suffer from identity governance challenges. The incident caused long-lasting trust issues among practitioners and the public.

Media coverage of such a failure resulted in suspended external partnerships and compensation claims from insured individuals. Beyond direct costs, the time devoted to crisis communications and internal audits diverted teams from innovation for several weeks.

Restoring trust then requires implementing a strengthened, third-party-validated protocol that is transparent to users. Leveraging recognized third-party identity providers gradually rebuilt confidence and secured essential business processes.

Advantages of Cloud Identity Providers

Specialized SaaS solutions provide security by design and ensure compliance with international standards. They relieve your teams from the daily management of sensitive data.

Security-by-Design

Cloud platforms dedicate significant resources to security R&D and regular independent audits. Infrastructure is isolated, segmented, and continuously patched, ensuring a consistently minimized attack surface. Anti-brute-force mechanisms, anomaly detection, and centralized certificate management contribute to this proactive approach.

Cloud environments often benefit from bug bounty programs and frequent pentests, which are difficult to replicate in-house. These external expert insights ensure rapid adaptation to emerging threats. An organization with a limited security department can hardly maintain this level of expertise without outsourcing some aspects.

Using standardized OAuth2 and OpenID Connect flows reduces configuration error risks. Integrations are done via documented and supported APIs, limiting the creation of potentially vulnerable custom code. You thus benefit from a secure foundation that is updated and validated with each protocol evolution.

Built-in Compliance and Certifications

A major Swiss insurance company migrated its client portal authentication to Azure AD B2C, gaining immediate compliance with ISO 27001 and GDPR certifications. This example shows how a cloud provider can eliminate a heavy regulatory burden without additional development.

Major providers undergo annual audits and publish detailed compliance reports, simplifying proof of legal adherence. Industry-specific frameworks (HIPAA, PCI-DSS, FedRAMP) can be covered without the project team intervening on every control point.

Centralized access and log management also meet audit requirements with just a few clicks. Integrated analytics tools provide actionable activity reports, essential for demonstrating security and traceability during audits.

Scalability and Operational Resilience

Cloud identity provider infrastructures are designed to handle extreme load spikes without additional effort. Redundant instances, automatic traffic distribution, and multiple availability zones guarantee high availability for authentication and user management.

During load increases, services adapt automatically, without the need to reprovision servers or overhaul the architecture. This elasticity is especially valuable for mobile or SaaS applications subject to promotional campaigns or critical product launches.

Outsourcing patch and infrastructure update management to a third party lets your teams focus on business and functional challenges. The user experience remains seamless even under heavy load, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

{CTA_BANNER_BLOG_POST}

Comparison of Cloud Identity Platforms

Each provider has its strengths based on your technology stack, required features, and budget. The choice depends on your existing ecosystem and evolution strategy.

AWS Cognito for a Native AWS Ecosystem

AWS Cognito integrates naturally with all AWS services, offering native identity management, user pools, and IAM roles. JWT tokens are automatically linked to your security policies, simplifying access delegation to services like API Gateway or Lambda. For serverless architectures, Cognito remains a logical choice, reducing the need for custom code to manage refresh tokens and revocation.

Initial setup requires mastery of the IAM layer and pool configurations, but automation via CloudFormation or Terraform makes industrialization more reliable. Cognito also offers email and SMS confirmation workflows, as well as user-data synchronization across devices.

For serverless architectures, Cognito remains a logical choice, reducing the need for custom code to manage refresh tokens and revocation. Its pay-per-use pricing ensures competitive rates as long as volumes remain controlled.

Azure AD B2C for the Microsoft Ecosystem and Hybrid Scenarios

Azure AD B2C caters to organizations already invested in Microsoft 365 and Azure AD. It allows you to expose conditional access policies, integrate easily with Azure Sentinel for anomaly detection, and leverage Azure’s identity governance features.

Custom policies give fine-grained control over user journeys, from SSO to extended profiles. Federation scenarios with external directories or B2B partners are handled seamlessly. Microsoft’s extensive documentation eases adoption by internal teams.

Its fixed monthly pricing suits medium to large organizations with relatively stable traffic forecasts. The platform’s resilience and integration with other Azure services make it a solid choice for enterprise-scale identity strategies.

Auth0 and Okta for Multi-Cloud Use Cases

For example, a Swiss e-commerce player chose Auth0 to federate access across applications hosted on both AWS and GCP. This demonstrates the flexibility required when operating in multi-cloud environments and maintaining a consistent user experience.

Auth0 offers a gallery of pre-integrated connections (social networks, SAML, LDAP) and JavaScript rules to customize each workflow step. Okta, on the other hand, emphasizes enterprise access management (EAM) and automated account provisioning, ideal for large organizations.

Both platforms provide rich monitoring dashboards and comprehensive REST APIs, easing integration into your DevOps or SIEM tools. Costs can be higher, but the functional richness and domain expertise often justify the investment for complex organizations.

Integration Dilemmas and Best Practices

Integration choices impact user experience and security level. It is essential to balance UX simplicity with robust authentication mechanisms.

Reconciling User Experience and Authentication Robustness

To reduce friction, using standardized OAuth2 flows with an integrated UI in your applications maintains graphical consistency while leveraging the provider’s security guarantees. The challenge is to avoid intrusive pop-ups or redirects.

Using native SDKs for mobile or front-end ensures optimal rendering and secure in-memory token handling. Silent refresh strategies help keep sessions alive without frequent reauthentication. However, rapid revocation must be guaranteed upon anomaly detection.

Implementing a token orchard with short-lived access tokens coupled with refresh tokens limits exposure in case of interception. Striking the right balance between token lifetime and refresh frequency is crucial.

Adopting Biometrics and Passwordless Authentication

Passwordless mechanisms combined with biometrics (Touch ID, Face ID, or fingerprint) offer a modern, secure UX. They rely on standards like WebAuthn and FIDO2, eliminating the need to store server-side passwords.

Implementing these flows requires a testing and user-acceptance phase to ensure adoption. Organizations must communicate clearly about biometric data protection, often perceived as sensitive. The SaaS provider handles private key management and encryption.

This approach eliminates common phishing vectors and reduces support load related to password resets. It does, however, require careful management of compatibility across browsers and mobile devices.

Native Integration vs. External Pages: Key Trade-offs

Native integration offers full control over the experience but exposes developers to the complexity of maintaining authentication flows. SDKs often require synchronized updates with provider API changes.

Provider-hosted pages ensure continuous compliance and delegate design management externally. They suit organizations prioritizing rapid deployment and reduced legal exposure.

The choice must align with your technical team’s maturity and customization requirements. A common compromise is to use a customizable iframe or embedded widget, combining UX flexibility with delegated security.

Strengthen Your Identity Security and Gain Peace of Mind

To avoid data leaks and attacks, opt for a proven solution rather than managing identities yourself. Cloud providers offer security, compliance, and scalability guarantees that few internal teams can replicate. The choice between AWS Cognito, Azure AD B2C, Auth0, or Okta will depend on your ecosystem and business requirements.

Adopt standard OAuth2 flows, prioritize UX with native SDKs, explore biometrics, and define a coherent integration strategy. Centralized management simplifies maintenance, session revocation, and traceability, while reducing regulatory burden. Our experts can help you contextualize these best practices and build a secure, scalable ecosystem aligned with your business goals.

Discuss your challenges with an Edana expert

In a context where data volumes are growing exponentially and responsiveness requirements are becoming critical, NoSQL databases have emerged as an essential alternative to traditional relational systems. Their distributed architecture, capacity to handle flexible schemas, and focus on horizontal scalability meet the needs of modern applications – big data, e-commerce, IoT, or real-time services.

This article reviews the fundamental differences with SQL, presents the main families of NoSQL databases, and illustrates their strengths and limitations with concrete examples. Finally, it provides guidance to choose the solution best suited to your IT and business challenges.

Key Differences Between SQL and NoSQL

Traditional relational models rely on a fixed schema and strong consistency, while NoSQL databases offer a dynamic schema and distribution tolerance. This choice affects data flexibility, performance management, and the ability to scale according to your actual needs.

The first divergence between SQL and NoSQL lies in data structure. Relational databases enforce a strict schema from the outset, which simplifies complex queries but complicates evolving the model. NoSQL databases, by contrast, adopt an “schema-less” or evolvable schema, allowing you to easily add new fields without a complete database overhaul.

Next, consistency management differs radically. SQL systems aim for ACID consistency in every transaction, ensuring data integrity but limiting performance under high distributed load. NoSQL databases often prioritize availability and partition tolerance (CAP), offering eventual consistency guarantees to optimize throughput and resilience.

Finally, the mode of scalability drives the choice according to your priorities. Relational databases scale-up by upgrading server resources (scale-up), whereas NoSQL databases rely on horizontal scalability, adding nodes to the cluster to handle traffic spikes or data volume increases without interruption.

Horizontal vs. Vertical Scalability

In a traditional SQL model, performance improvement typically comes from adding CPU, memory, or storage resources to a single server. This scale-up approach can be costly and faces physical and budgetary limits.

NoSQL architectures are designed for cluster deployment. Simply add new nodes to increase storage capacity and processing power. This flexibility makes it easy to handle high load spikes or unexpected growth.

A Swiss SME specializing in real-time analytics expanded its Cassandra cluster from three to ten nodes in just a few hours. This horizontal scaling demonstrated the speed and operational efficiency a NoSQL database offers for seasonal traffic spikes.

Graph Databases for Complex Relationships

Graph databases (Neo4j, JanusGraph) represent data as nodes and edges, enabling the modeling and exploration of sophisticated relationships. They are favored for social networks, fraud detection, and recommendation engines.

Thanks to optimized traversal algorithms, they deliver high performance for path queries or centrality metrics, which are difficult to achieve in SQL without costly joins.

A Swiss financial services institution uses a graph database to detect payment fraud by linking transactions, accounts, and behaviors. This example highlights the contribution of graph databases to real-time relational analysis.

{CTA_BANNER_BLOG_POST}

Main Types of NoSQL Databases

NoSQL databases are divided into four main categories: document, key-value, column, and graph, each optimized for specific needs. Understanding their strengths and use cases makes it easier to choose the right solution for your project.

Each type of NoSQL database specializes in a particular access pattern or data model. Document databases naturally handle semi-structured objects, key-value stores excel in speed for simple pairs, wide-column stores efficiently address analytics on large volumes, and graph databases exploit complex relationships between entities.

Selection criteria include the nature of queries, data volume, the need for relationships between objects, and latency requirements. A precise analysis of your business needs will guide you toward the most suitable family, or even a hybrid architecture combining multiple NoSQL solutions.

Document and Key-Value Databases

Document databases (MongoDB, Couchbase) store JSON or BSON objects, making them ideal for web applications, product catalogs, or user profiles. Their model adapts to heterogeneous data without requiring schema migrations when evolving.

Conversely, key-value stores (Redis, DynamoDB) associate a unique key with an opaque value, ensuring ultra-fast access. They are commonly used for caching, user sessions, or queues.

Both approaches share the advantages of minimal latency and ease of implementation, but differ in the complexity of queries they support: document databases allow searches on internal fields, while key-value stores are limited to key-based lookups.

Use Cases: Big Data, E-Commerce, IoT, and Real-Time Services

NoSQL databases address a variety of needs: big data ingestion and analysis, e-commerce personalization, connected object management, and real-time services. Each use case leverages specific characteristics to optimize performance and responsiveness.

For an online retailer, the ability to recommend relevant products in real time depends on analyzing customer journeys and purchase histories. Document databases provide flexibility to store profiles and sessions enriched with behavioral data.

Integrating Redis as a cache ensures sub-millisecond response times for product pages or carts, while the document database feeds recommendation engines in near real time.

A Swiss e-commerce platform implemented MongoDB to store views and user interactions, and Redis to manage sessions. This choice increased the conversion rate by 15%, demonstrating the impact of NoSQL databases on the customer experience.

Advantages and Constraints of NoSQL Databases

NoSQL databases stand out for their performance, horizontal scalability, and flexibility, but they also introduce increased complexity and consistency trade-offs. A rigorous evaluation of advantages and limitations ensures a choice tailored to your business and technical context.

The main strengths lie in the ability to handle variable loads without interruption, evolve the schema effortlessly, and distribute data across multiple nodes for high availability. In return, cluster operational management requires specialized skills and increased focus on consistency and backups.

Eventual consistency can lead to temporary discrepancies between replicas, requiring application-level mechanisms to compensate for these delays. Finally, management and monitoring costs can rise if you multiply clusters or associated services.

Turning Your Data into an Innovation Lever with NoSQL

NoSQL databases offer a range of solutions to address the scalability, flexibility, and performance challenges posed by modern applications. By understanding their differences with SQL, the available types, priority use cases, and their strengths and limitations, you can structure a contextual, open-source, and modular architecture.

Whether you are in the exploration phase or ready to industrialize your platform, our experts can support you in auditing your ecosystem, selecting technologies, and implementing an appropriate governance. Benefit from a hybrid approach, free from vendor lock-in, focused on ROI, performance, and longevity.

Discuss your challenges with an Edana expert

In a context where IT infrastructure underpins performance, security, and innovation capacity, the infrastructure engineer plays a strategic role. They design, deploy, and oversee hybrid ecosystems blending hardware, networks, and software, while avoiding excessive proprietary lock-in. Depending on the company’s size and maturity, their responsibilities span on-premise, cloud, and automation through infrastructure as code.

How can you precisely define their scope, identify the required technical skills and soft skills? When is the right time to hire this profile to maximize ROI and your IT system’s resilience? This article provides a comprehensive overview of their missions, career progression, and selection criteria.

What Is the Scope of the Infrastructure Engineer?

The infrastructure engineer is responsible for designing, deploying, and supervising the IT ecosystem. They ensure the availability, scalability, and security of hardware, network, and software environments.

Overall Scope of the Infrastructure Engineer

The primary mission is to define the target infrastructure architecture based on business needs and technical constraints. The engineer analyzes data volumes, performance requirements, and continuity-of-service objectives to choose the right components. They then coordinate the deployment of servers, network equipment, and the software layer to ensure a reliable and scalable foundation.

Open source is often preferred to limit vendor lock-in, following DevSecOps best practices, while ensuring modularity and maintainability. The engineer sets standards, selects monitoring tools, and establishes incident management procedures. They also interact with business teams to anticipate changes and adjust the infrastructure as projects evolve.

Example: A Swiss industrial SME hired an infrastructure engineer to migrate its server fleet to a hyper-converged cluster. This project demonstrates the importance of a modular, scalable approach to absorb workload peaks without service interruption.

Differences by Organization Size and Maturity

In a startup, the infrastructure engineer often wears multiple hats and directly manages the provisioning of cloud and on-premise resources. Speed of deployment and flexibility are paramount to support rapid growth. Documentation and automation with Terraform or Ansible may be lighter in favor of responsiveness.

Conversely, in a large enterprise, the infrastructure engineer specializes in a technical domain, such as networking or storage, and collaborates with architects and security teams. ITIL processes and formal update cycles minimize risks in critical environments. Traceability and compliance with standards are essential.

In mid-sized organizations, a hybrid profile is often sought—capable of handling both cloud-native projects and legacy infrastructures—while defining a roadmap toward a more agile and secure architecture.

Cloud, Network, and Infrastructure Architect Variants

The role can branch into a cloud engineer focused on the IaaS and PaaS services of major providers. They automate deployments and ensure dynamic resource sizing. This specialist implements backup and disaster recovery strategies in the cloud to meet continuity requirements.

The network engineer, on the other hand, designs and secures IP, VPN, and MPLS flows. They implement Zero Trust policies and VPNs to encrypt sensitive communications. Their expertise in protocols and performance optimization is crucial.

The infrastructure architect takes a cross-cutting vision and supports long-term strategy. They conduct urbanization studies, define design standards, and guide platform evolution toward hyper-converged or microservices-oriented architectures.

The Hardware, Network, and Software Layers Supervised

The infrastructure engineer covers all layers, from physical racks to deployment code. Each level requires specific expertise and the ability to orchestrate components for performance and reliability.

Hardware Layer: Servers and Storage

At this level, the engineer selects physical or virtual servers and evaluates CPU, RAM, and disk capacity needs. They must anticipate data growth and choose tiered or distributed storage solutions. The goal is to provide a high-performance, scalable hardware foundation capable of handling variable loads.

Hyper-converged infrastructures combine storage, compute, and networking in a single chassis, simplifying management and offering a strong cost-performance ratio. This approach speeds up deployments and reduces failure points.

In parallel, object storage and automated backup solutions ensure data persistence and resilience, complemented by a robust disaster recovery plan.

Network Layer: Connectivity and Perimeter Security

At the heart of the infrastructure, the network ensures communication among users, applications, and services. The engineer designs the LAN, WAN, and connections to public cloud and remote sites. They size links, define VLANs, and implement high availability to prevent downtime.

Perimeter security relies on next-generation firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and access controls. The engineer enforces Zero Trust policies and VPNs to encrypt sensitive traffic. They also monitor traffic to detect anomalies and anticipate DDoS attacks.

Network performance management involves continuous monitoring of RTT, jitter, and throughput. Dedicated tools alert on degradation and allow load balancing or automatic traffic rerouting to ensure an optimal user experience.

Software Layer: Hypervisors, Containers, and Orchestration

On the software layer, the engineer selects and configures hypervisors (VMware, Hyper-V, or KVM) or container platforms (Docker, Kubernetes). Containers facilitate portability and rapid application deployment. The specialist defines best practices for image packaging and versioning.

Orchestration is handled with tools like Kubernetes, OpenShift, or Rancher. The engineer designs clusters, configures scaling policies, and ensures pod resilience. They integrate discovery and load-balancing services to dynamically distribute load.

The software layer also includes backup, snapshot, and restoration solutions. The engineer automates workflows via scripts, manages configurations, and ensures consistency across development, staging, and production environments.

Example: A Swiss private bank revamped its network and hypervisor architecture, moving from a single data center to a multizone design. This effort demonstrated the importance of an orchestrated software layer to guarantee rapid replication and uninterrupted service continuity.

{CTA_BANNER_BLOG_POST}

What Are the Recurring Missions of the Infrastructure Engineer?

The missions cover design, security, automation, monitoring, documentation, and cross-functional coordination. Each task fits into a continuous cycle of IT system improvement and resilience.

Infrastructure Design and Deployment

During the design phase, the engineer assesses requirements, defines the target architecture, and selects technologies. They build the deployment plan, map hardware and software components, and schedule milestones. Success depends on aligning business constraints with SLA objectives.

The deployment phase involves configuring equipment, installing operating systems, and setting up networks. The engineer coordinates vendors and internal teams to ensure a smooth cutover. Load and security tests are performed from the first deployment to validate the design.

In a hybrid context, they also manage connectors between on-premise and public cloud. They monitor operating costs and recommend optimizations to balance performance and budget. This approach avoids surprises and enhances IT spending predictability.

Security and Patch Management

Infrastructure security involves regular patching, firmware updates, and enforcing security policies. The engineer schedules maintenance windows to minimize operational impact. They validate fixes in test environments before production rollout.

They integrate vulnerability scanners and review reports to identify weaknesses. Automated backup and restore procedures ensure rapid data recovery in case of incidents. The engineer also conducts regular audits and raises team awareness on security best practices.

Continuous compliance with standards (ISO 27001, GDPR, etc.) is verified. The engineer drafts and updates incident management and alert response procedures. These measures reduce risks and maintain high trust levels.

Automation, Infrastructure as Code, and CI/CD

Automation is central to ensuring consistency and reproducibility. The engineer writes Ansible, Terraform, or CloudFormation scripts to describe the desired state of infrastructure as code. They version these resources in Git repositories to track every change.

Implementing CI/CD pipelines enables automatic deployment of updates and patches. The engineer configures build and test jobs, integrates security scans, and manages phased rollouts. This reduces human error and shortens delivery cycles.

Using containers and orchestration tools enhances modularity. Each component is packaged in a lightweight container and deployed via a pipeline, ensuring scalability and service isolation. The engineer standardizes workflows and secures the entire process.

Monitoring, Documentation, and Coordination

Proactive monitoring relies on tools like Prometheus, Grafana, or ELK. The engineer defines key performance indicators (CPU, memory, latency, errors) and sets up alerts to detect issues before users are impacted. Regular reports help plan future improvements.

Technical documentation captures architectures, deployment procedures, and recovery plans. It serves as a reference for new team members and facilitates knowledge transfer. The engineer continuously updates these documents to reflect infrastructure changes.

Finally, they act as a facilitator between development and operations teams. Technical committees and sync meetings help adjust priorities and align IT and business roadmaps. This cross-functional coordination is essential to accelerate projects and secure deliveries.

Example: A Swiss e-commerce platform adopted Terraform to automate environment provisioning and integrated a CI/CD pipeline. This showed that well-designed infrastructure as code reduces deployment time by 70% and improves update reliability.

Skills, Soft Skills, and Career Path to Architecture

An infrastructure engineer must combine deep technical expertise with strong interpersonal skills. Education and certifications mark a progressive career toward senior and architectural roles.

Essential Technical Skills

Operating systems (Linux, Windows Server) form the foundation. The engineer masters shell commands, service management, and advanced kernel configuration. They must also understand virtualization and containerization principles to size resources correctly.

On the network side, knowledge of TCP/IP, BGP, and VLAN protocols is essential. The ability to configure firewalls, load balancers, and VPN tunnels ensures secure and performant traffic. The engineer is also proficient with scripting tools to automate recurring tasks.

Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and IaaS/PaaS services is often required. CI/CD skills, containerization with Docker and Kubernetes, and an infrastructure as code approach are now indispensable to meet agility and reliability demands.

Soft Skills and Non-Technical Expertise

Communication skills enable translating business needs into technical solutions and simplifying complex concepts. The engineer must establish constructive dialogue with development, security, and operations teams. This collaboration strengthens buy-in and responsiveness during cross-functional projects.

Organization and rigor are essential to manage multiple projects and stick to maintenance schedules. A structured approach helps prioritize incidents and document every action. Anticipation prevents firefighting by planning updates and upgrades.

Finally, analytical thinking and technical curiosity drive continuous monitoring of new technologies and best practices. The engineer leverages open source communities, conferences, and peer exchanges to enrich their expertise and propose innovative solutions.

Education and Progression to Infrastructure Architect

Degrees in computer science, network engineering, or information systems provide a solid foundation. Certifications (Linux Foundation, Cisco CCNA/CCNP, AWS Certified Solutions Architect) validate specific skills and reassure recruiters. They are valuable assets during hiring.

Throughout their career, the engineer can specialize by earning DevOps or Kubernetes Certified Administrator accreditations. These programs focus on automation and large-scale cluster management. They also prepare for architectural roles and leading internal technical communities.

Transitioning to the architect role relies on experience with major projects, the ability to set standards, and oversee complex initiatives. The senior engineer becomes a strategic reference, participates in governance, and advises leadership on long-term infrastructure choices.

Optimize Your Infrastructure to Strengthen Your Competitiveness

A well-sized and secure infrastructure is a lever for performance, agility, and resilience. The infrastructure engineer ensures alignment between business needs and technical capacities, guarantees availability, and anticipates changes. Their technical skills, enriched by soft skills and continuous learning, are essential to manage hybrid, modular ecosystems.

Whether you plan to recruit this key profile or develop your existing resources, our Edana experts are ready to assess your challenges and build a tailored infrastructure strategy. Their experience in open source, cloud, and legacy environments will guide you toward scalable and secure solutions.

Discuss your challenges with an Edana expert

Endpoint security for databases has become a critical, yet often underestimated, pillar in the overall data protection strategy. Attacks primarily target the servers hosting your databases, exploiting system vulnerabilities and improper configurations.

Ensuring robust endpoint protection not only allows you to detect intrusions swiftly but also prevents data leaks and sabotage of your critical assets. Modern solutions such as EDR, MDR, and XDR offer an essential defense layer that complements network and application security. Discover how to integrate this aspect into your IT governance to preserve the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your data.

Fundamentals of Databases and Security Challenges

Understanding the different types of databases and their use cases is the first step in assessing risks. Securing these systems requires a clear vision of responsibilities, access controls, and available cryptographic mechanisms.

Types of Databases

Relational databases, such as PostgreSQL or MySQL, organize information in tables linked by primary and foreign keys. They are suited for structured transactions and guarantee ACID consistency.

NewSQL systems offer a compromise by combining the transactional reliability of relational databases with the distributed performance of NoSQL. Finally, data warehouses like Snowflake or Redshift are optimized for analytics, while in-memory databases (Redis) target extreme performance. Discover our guide on data warehouses.

Example: An industrial company simultaneously used a PostgreSQL database for production management and MongoDB to collect sensor data. This hybrid architecture highlights the importance of choosing the right database category based on volume and consistency requirements for each use case.

Role of Databases and Continuity Challenges

Databases store strategic information, from customer management to production planning and billing. Unavailability or corruption can paralyze operations and damage reputation. Ensuring availability involves redundancy strategies, replication, and backups with regular restore points. To prepare your disaster recovery plan, see our DR/BCP guide.

Service continuity relies on clustering mechanisms, automatic failover, and performance monitoring. Every configuration change or version update must follow a testing protocol in an isolated environment to prevent unforeseen downtime.

Integrating security at the design stage of replication and backup plans reduces the risk of human error and strengthens resilience against storage-based denial-of-service attacks.

Importance of Database Security

Database security aims to ensure data confidentiality, integrity, and availability. It includes access control, strong authentication, encryption at rest and in transit, and audit logging. Without these measures, sensitive data is exposed to leaks and corruption.

Regulations such as the GDPR or the Swiss Federal Data Protection Act impose traceability and confidentiality requirements. Non-compliance can lead to fines and loss of trust, which is particularly critical for the financial, medical, and industrial sectors.

Investing in database security strengthens the organization’s overall posture, as it becomes the cornerstone of cybersecurity and supports network and application security efforts.

Modern Threats Targeting Databases

SQL injection attacks, denial-of-service, and privilege escalation remain among the most feared attack vectors. Cybercriminals often exploit unprotected endpoints to compromise your data.

SQL Injection and Denial-of-Service Attacks

SQL injection allows malicious commands to be inserted into queries, compromising access rights and confidentiality. An unfiltered query can expose the entire schema or allow deletion of critical data. WAF protections and the use of parameterized queries are essential preventive measures.

Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks aim to overwhelm server resources, rendering the database unavailable. These attacks can be amplified by bots or massive queries. Implementing quotas, throttling, and application firewalls limits the impact on availability.

Example: A Swiss retailer experienced a surge of illegitimate requests to its MySQL server, resulting in several hours of downtime. Post-incident analysis revealed a lack of throttling mechanisms and endpoint-level network protection—a key lesson for strengthening database server security.

Privilege Escalation and Access Compromise

Privilege escalation occurs when compromised or misconfigured credentials allow moving from a low-permission account to an administrator role. Attackers can then alter the database structure, delete backups, or download entire data volumes.

Granular role management, separation of environments (production, testing), and regular rotation of keys and certificates mitigate this risk. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) on administration consoles is also an indispensable safeguard, complemented by a zero-trust IAM approach.

Monitoring sessions and unusual queries with endpoint intrusion detection tools enables rapid identification of any privilege escalation attempts.

Data Leaks and Sabotage

Insider saboteurs or advanced persistent threats (APTs) often exploit endpoint access to exfiltrate sensitive data. Without disk encryption and detailed logging, these leaks can go undetected for months.

File system-level encryption, combined with role-based access control and immutable audit logs, reduces the attack surface and facilitates post-incident investigations. Endpoint security solutions also analyze suspicious read/write processes.

A comprehensive data loss prevention (DLP) policy, integrated with endpoint security, serves as an additional barrier against unauthorized exfiltration.

{CTA_BANNER_BLOG_POST}

Endpoint Security: Core Principles and Key Features

Endpoint security ensures that every server, VM, and container is hardened and continuously monitored. It serves as the last line of defense before direct database access.

Encryption at Rest and in Transit

Disk encryption protects data even if an attacker gains physical access to the server. Built-in OS solutions or third-party modules encrypt each block, rendering the disk unreadable without the key. This mechanism enhances data loss prevention and regulatory compliance.

Channel encryption (TLS, VPN) ensures confidentiality of traffic between clients, applications, and databases. It prevents interception of credentials and sensitive data during queries. Certificates must be managed and renewed automatically to avoid any authenticity gaps.

Endpoint solutions often include a key and certificate management module, centralizing distribution and avoiding manual configuration errors.

Behavioral Analysis and Anomaly Detection

Endpoint behavioral analysis tools establish normal usage profiles for each server. Any deviation (unknown processes, calls to unauthorized libraries, requests to unusual ports) triggers an immediate alert. This intrusion detection is crucial for spotting APTs and lateral movements.

Embedded machine learning algorithms analyze system logs, file access, and network calls to identify malicious patterns. Real-time analysis can automatically block suspicious actions or quarantine the affected server.

With these capabilities, even new or signature-less attacks can be detected and isolated before they reach the database.

Patch Management and System Hardening

An unpatched server presents a major entry point for attackers. Endpoint solutions often include a patch management module, automating the deployment of critical updates while testing dependencies to prevent regressions.

Hardening involves closing unnecessary ports, disabling superfluous services, and applying security policies (CIS Benchmarks). This approach significantly reduces the attack surface by limiting intrusion vectors.

Regular vulnerability scans integrated into endpoint security provide continuous visibility and prioritize corrective actions based on business risk.

EDR, MDR, and XDR for Databases

EDR, MDR, and XDR solutions offer complementary defense layers to cover detection, response, and threat correlation. They are essential for high-performance, scalable server endpoint protection.

EDR: Rapid Incident Response

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) continuously collects system, network, and file events. In case of an incident, EDR delivers a detailed diagnosis of the attack path, involved processes, and potential impact on the database.

Internal teams can then isolate the compromised server, block malicious processes, and restore the previous state. EDR speeds up mean time to respond (MTTR) and limits operational impact.

For a critical database, EDR is the first active defense component, detecting injection attempts, privilege escalation, and lateral movement before the attack progresses.

MDR: External Expertise and Support

Managed Detection and Response (MDR) combines EDR technology with dedicated expert supervision. Outsourcing monitoring and analysis provides 24/7 expertise without internal overload.

MDR analysts identify complex incidents, investigate persistent threats, and suggest precise remediation actions. This contextualized approach leverages industry knowledge and specific use cases.

Example: A Geneva-based banking organization used an MDR service to secure its Oracle databases. The provider detected a series of bot attacks targeting private replication, highlighting the importance of expert threat intelligence for anticipating emerging threats.

XDR: Unified Visibility and Data Correlation

Extended Detection and Response (XDR) centralizes security alerts from endpoints, networks, cloud, and applications. This correlation provides a holistic view of attacks, revealing multi-vector scenarios often invisible in silos.

XDR automates response by orchestrating playbooks across firewalls, server endpoint protection solutions, and SIEM tools. The reaction is immediate and coordinated across the entire infrastructure.

For database security, XDR ensures that no evasion attempts slip through the cracks, even when attacks originate on other layers (cloud, application).

Building a Robust Endpoint Security Strategy for Databases

Protecting databases goes beyond encryption or authentication. A comprehensive endpoint security strategy, based on EDR, MDR, and XDR, enables continuous threat detection, analysis, and response. Key features such as disk encryption, behavioral analysis, and patch management enhance server resilience.

Our experts tailor each project to your context, favoring open-source, scalable solutions with no vendor lock-in. They support you from audit to SOC implementation, whether in-house or outsourced, ensuring a security posture aligned with your performance and longevity requirements.

Discuss your challenges with an Edana expert

In a landscape where open source has become a cornerstone of software innovation, leveraging its benefits while controlling the risks is a major challenge for IT leadership. DevSecOps methodologies, which embed security from the design phase, provide a structured framework to ensure the robustness of your custom developments. From legal compliance and dependency tracking to automated controls, there are now pragmatic solutions to reconcile agility with resilience.

Advantages of Open Source Code for Your Custom Projects

Open source accelerates your development with a vast library of proven components maintained by an active community. This dynamic enables a shorter time-to-market while benefiting from recognized and reliable standards.

A rich ecosystem and accelerated time-to-market

Open source projects rely on thousands of open libraries and frameworks, reviewed and validated by a global community. Each new release includes fixes derived from diverse real-world feedback, drastically reducing internal testing and validation phases.

By leveraging standardized modules, internal teams no longer need to reinvent the wheel for common features (authentication, logging, caching, etc.). They can focus instead on the business value unique to their project.

Thanks to these ready-to-use components, deploying a new feature can go from several weeks to a few days without compromising quality.

Example: A Swiss industrial equipment company integrated an open source IoT sensor management library. This choice reduced prototype development time for a monitoring platform by 40% while benefiting from regular updates and security patches provided by the community.

Flexibility and adaptability of components

The modular architecture inherent to open source makes it easy to customize each piece according to the company’s specific needs. It becomes possible to replace or adjust a component without impacting the entire solution.

This modularity reduces vendor lock-in risk: you’re no longer tied to a proprietary vendor and retain full control over each technology layer.

Furthermore, access to the complete source code opens the door to targeted optimizations for performance, low latency, or enhanced security constraints.

As your stack evolves, you can update your modules independently, ensuring a scalable and sustainable architecture.

A continuous community and support

Each open source project relies on a community of developers, maintainers, and users who share feedback, patches, and best practices through forums, mailing lists, or dedicated platforms.

Release cycles are typically well documented, with release notes detailing bug fixes, security patches, and new features.

Several projects also offer commercial support services, giving companies access to SLAs, prioritized updates, and expert advice.

This dual layer of community and professional support ensures continuous and secure maintenance of key components in your software ecosystem.

Common Risks Associated with Using Open Source

Despite its many advantages, open source entails vulnerabilities related to licensing, outdated dependencies, or abandoned projects. Identifying and anticipating these is crucial for ensuring the security and compliance of your custom solutions.

License management and legal compliance

Each open source component is distributed under a specific license (MIT, Apache, GPL, etc.) that defines the rights and obligations around distribution, modification, and reuse.

A lack of awareness about these restrictions can lead to inadvertent violations—such as including a copyleft library in a proprietary module without meeting source code sharing obligations.

To avoid legal risk, it’s essential to inventory every dependency and precisely document the associated license before development begins.

This traceability also simplifies legal audits and ensures transparency with stakeholders and regulators.

Vulnerabilities and outdated dependencies

Security flaws can affect both your code and its transitive dependencies. An unpatched external component can introduce serious vulnerabilities (XSS, RCE, CSRF, etc.).

Without an automated analysis and remediation process, you expose your applications to attacks exploiting known flaws that have existed for months or even years.

Tools like Snyk, Dependabot, or OWASP Dependency-Check regularly list CVE vulnerabilities and recommend patches or safer versions.

Example: A banking group discovered a critical flaw in the 1.2.0 version of a cryptography library, which had been abandoned for two years. Integrating an automated scanner allowed them to identify and patch version 1.3.5, thus avoiding an incident with heavy financial and reputational consequences.

Abandoned open source projects and lack of maintenance

Some open source projects, though initially promising, may lose their lead maintainer or see community disengagement. The code then becomes obsolete, with no security updates or functional improvements.

Integrating such a project increases risk because any detected vulnerability will no longer receive an official fix. You are then forced to maintain your own fork, incurring additional development and support costs.

Before selecting a component, check the repository’s activity (number of recent contributions, open issues, maintainer responsiveness) and favor projects with clear governance and regular release cycles.

In case of trouble, having anticipated replacement scenarios or an internal fork allows swift response without compromising delivery timelines.

{CTA_BANNER_BLOG_POST}

DevSecOps Best Practices for Securing Open Source from the Design Phase

Embedding security from the outset of development significantly reduces vulnerabilities and boosts operational efficiency. DevSecOps practices support this approach by formalizing risk analysis and automating controls.

Shift Left security integration

The “Shift Left” principle involves moving security activities to the earliest stages of the development cycle, starting with user story creation and architecture definition.

This approach ensures that security criteria (strong authentication, sensitive data encryption, access management) are included from the solution’s design phase.

UML diagrams or API mock-ups should include annotations on the flows to secure and the controls to implement.

By involving the Security and Architecture teams from sprint zero, you avoid costly rework at the end of the project, where adding mitigation measures can cause delays and budget overruns.

Code reviews and automated audits

Manual code reviews remain essential for identifying logical flaws or bad practices, but they should be complemented by automated scanners.

Tools like SonarQube, Checkmarx, or Trivy detect code vulnerabilities, dangerous patterns, and misconfigurations.

Integrated directly into your CI/CD pipelines, these scans run at each commit or pull request, immediately alerting developers of non-compliance.

Rapid feedback reinforces a quality culture and reduces the risk of introducing regressions or security breaches.

Proactive license management and governance

Implementing an open source license management policy, overseen by a legal referent or an Open Source Program Office, ensures contractual obligations are met.

License repositories are kept up to date, and every new dependency undergoes formal validation before integration into the codebase.

This governance includes a legal risk dashboard that classifies each license by criticality and its impact on distribution processes.

Example: A telecommunications company established a monthly open source license review committee. Every new library is examined from legal and technical standpoints, reducing non-compliance cases by 70% and enabling surprise-free client audits.

Tools and Strategy for Automating Open Source Dependency Security

Automating the detection and remediation of vulnerabilities in dependencies is a cornerstone of DevSecOps. It frees teams from manual tasks and ensures consistent code hygiene.

Automatic vulnerability detection

Dependency scanners (Snyk, Dependabot, OWASP Dependency-Check) analyze manifests (package.json, pom.xml, Gemfile, etc.) to identify vulnerable versions.

As soon as a CVE is referenced, these tools generate tickets or pull requests with the patched version or a mitigation plan.

The severity level (CVSS score) is automatically assigned to each alert, helping prioritize fixes based on business impact.

This continuous monitoring prevents technical debt accumulation and ensures your releases adhere to security best practices.

Secure CI/CD pipelines

Incorporating security scans into CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins) enables teams to block or be notified of new vulnerabilities.

Each merge to the main branch triggers a series of checks: linting, unit tests, integration tests, and security scans.

The build status reflects overall code quality, including risk level. CI dashboards display trends and success rates.

With these safeguards, no code is deployed without meeting the security and quality requirements defined from the outset.

Continuous monitoring and alerting

Monitoring platforms (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack) can be integrated with security tools to raise production alerts.

By tracking key metrics (authentication failure rates, abnormal traffic, latency, 5xx errors), you quickly spot suspicious activity that may indicate an exploited vulnerability.

Incident playbooks define response steps and stakeholder roles (DevOps, Security, Support), ensuring a coordinated and controlled reaction.

This continuous feedback loop strengthens your infrastructure’s resilience and protects critical services against emerging threats.

Leverage Open Source with Confidence

By combining the openness and richness of open source with robust DevSecOps practices, you gain an agile, modular, and secure ecosystem. Proactive license analysis, automated scans, and integrating security from the design phase ensure rapid deliveries without compromising on quality or compliance.

Whether you’re managing demanding custom projects or looking to reinforce an existing architecture, an open source–focused DevSecOps approach provides flexibility and peace of mind. You reduce time spent on manual fixes and empower your teams to innovate.

Our Edana experts are here to define the strategy, choose the right tools, and deploy a tailor-made DevSecOps pipeline aligned with your business objectives and regulatory constraints.

Discuss your challenges with an Edana expert

Dans un contexte où la qualité, la rapidité et la stabilité des livraisons logicielles déterminent la compétitivité des entreprises, le rôle du DevOps engineer est devenu stratégique. Cette expertise hybride cultive la collaboration entre les équipes de développement et d’exploitation pour automatiser les déploiements, réduire les risques opérationnels et accélérer le time-to-market. Face à une demande croissante de solutions agiles et résilientes, les entreprises suisses cherchent à intégrer ce profil clé pour soutenir leurs ambitions de croissance. Cet article décrit les missions, responsabilités, compétences, outils, parcours professionnel, conseils de recrutement et perspectives salariales du DevOps engineer.

The Essential Role of the DevOps Engineer within the Company

The DevOps engineer ensures convergence between development and operations to streamline releases and strengthen system stability. They are responsible for automating processes and optimizing collaboration across teams.

Definition and Core Mission

The DevOps engineer is a professional at the intersection of software development and infrastructure administration. They design and maintain continuous integration and delivery pipelines (CI/CD) to guarantee release quality and environment consistency.

Their mission includes test industrialization, container orchestration, and configuration management as code. They ensure each software version is deployed quickly and uniformly while minimizing regression risks.

By combining agile practices with infrastructure-as-code principles, this role fosters better communication between teams and breaks down silos, improving responsiveness to incidents and functional changes.

Organizational Positioning

The DevOps engineer typically reports to the CIO/CTO or the COO. They work closely with developers, product managers, and security engineers.

Depending on the organization’s digital maturity, they may belong to a cross-functional team or a dedicated DevOps unit. This position enables them to spearhead cross-departmental initiatives related to automation, performance, and resilience.

In collaboration with business stakeholders, they define deployment standards, key performance indicators, and service-level agreements, ensuring alignment with the organization’s strategic objectives.

Contribution to Operational Performance

By automating manual processes, the DevOps engineer reduces the time between feature approval and production release. This accelerated time-to-market becomes a decisive competitive advantage.

They implement monitoring and alerting metrics to detect anomalies early and optimize system availability. Incidents are resolved more quickly, minimizing impacts on business operations and user satisfaction.

For example, a banking services company reduced its deployment failure rate by 60% after hiring a DevOps engineer. They implemented a CI/CD pipeline and automated audit scheduling that enhanced the reliability of critical applications.

Responsibilities of the DevOps Engineer in the Software Lifecycle

The DevOps engineer orchestrates every stage of the software pipeline, from continuous integration to production deployment. Their scope covers automation, infrastructure as code, and real-time monitoring.

CI/CD and Deployment Automation

Establishing a continuous integration (CI) pipeline ensures compilation, unit tests, and code reviews on each change. The DevOps engineer guarantees systematic code validation before adding new features.

Continuous deployment (CD) automation enables rapid pre-production and production releases with minimal human error. Rollbacks are predefined to revert instantly to a stable version if an issue arises.

By standardizing scripts and using orchestration engines, they shorten release times and secure deliveries while freeing development teams from repetitive, sensitive tasks.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Using tools like Terraform, Ansible, or CloudFormation, the DevOps engineer defines infrastructure as code. Every change to a server, network, or cloud service is traceable and versionable.

This approach ensures environment reproducibility, reduces configuration drift, and simplifies scaling. Infrastructures can be deployed, updated, or torn down automatically based on business needs.

It also allows testing changes in isolated environments before applying them to production, ensuring consistent compliance and significantly reducing risks associated with manual updates.

Monitoring and Observability

The DevOps engineer implements monitoring solutions (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK) to collect and analyze system, application, and business metrics. Proactive performance monitoring anticipates issues before they impact operations.

They define alert thresholds and dashboards for a clear view of microservices, containers, and cloud infrastructure. Logs are centralized to streamline investigations and accelerate incident resolution.

In a Swiss pharmaceutical group, adding an observability component detected a memory leak in a critical microservice. The automated alert led to a proactive fix, preventing an interruption in the production line.

{CTA_BANNER_BLOG_POST}

Key Technical Skills, Tools, and Distinctions of a Strong DevOps Engineer

A broad technical skill set is required: cloud, scripting, system administration, and integration of DevOps tools. Differentiation from the Site Reliability Engineer or software developer role lies in the operational focus and continuous automation.

Essential Skills

Proficiency in Linux and Windows systems, as well as scripting languages (Bash, Python, PowerShell), is fundamental for administration tasks and automation. These skills provide the flexibility to adapt to diverse environments.

Knowledge of leading cloud providers (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) is crucial for designing hybrid or multi-cloud architectures. Understanding PaaS, IaaS, and serverless services enables cost and performance optimization.

A strong security mindset is also necessary: secrets management, encryption, access controls, and automated vulnerability testing.

Must-Have Tools

CI/CD pipelines often rely on Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, or Azure DevOps. Tool choice depends on context, existing maturity, and vendor-lock-in constraints.

For IaC, Terraform and Ansible dominate the open-source market with their modularity and extensive modules. These solutions ensure consistent resource management and facilitate cross-team collaboration.

In containerization, Docker and Kubernetes are indispensable. Docker offers lightweight application packaging, while Kubernetes orchestrates distribution, auto-scaling, and service resilience in production.

Differences from SRE and Software Engineer

A Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) focuses on large-scale reliability and performance, often with strict SLO/SLI/SLA objectives. The DevOps engineer covers the entire delivery pipeline, from code writing to operations.

A software engineer concentrates primarily on functional and technical product design. The DevOps engineer builds on these developments to deploy and maintain infrastructure, ensuring consistency across test, preproduction, and production environments.

A Swiss logistics company distinguished these roles by creating a dedicated SRE unit for high availability, while DevOps engineers focused on pipeline automation and continuous deployment, ensuring smooth feature delivery.

Career Path, Recruitment, and Salary Outlook for the DevOps Specialist

Training and certifications guide the DevOps engineer’s journey from introduction to advanced expertise. Recruitment should be based on technical and cultural criteria to ensure a fit with business context and sustainable collaboration.

Career Path and Certifications

Most DevOps engineers start as system engineers, developers, or cloud administrators. They gradually acquire skills in automation, containerization, and orchestration.

Recognized certifications include Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA), AWS Certified DevOps Engineer, Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert, and HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate. These credentials validate mastery of DevOps practices.

Internal training, specialized bootcamps, and hands-on workshops on real projects are excellent opportunities to develop operational expertise and immerse in hybrid environments.

Recruitment Criteria and Timing

Recruitment is ideal when the company reaches a technical complexity threshold: increased deployment frequency, multiple environments, or recurring update incidents.

Key criteria include experience in pipeline automation, IaC tool mastery, security culture, and capability to work on cross-functional projects. Openness to open source and desire to avoid vendor lock-in are also major assets.

The DevOps engineer must communicate effectively with development, operations, and business teams to understand challenges, share best practices, and anticipate future needs.

Average Salaries by Experience Level

In Switzerland, a junior DevOps engineer starts at around CHF 90,000 to CHF 110,000 per year, depending on region and industry. At this stage, they master the basics of IaC and CI/CD pipelines.

With 3–5 years of experience, the average salary ranges from CHF 110,000 to CHF 130,000, reflecting deeper expertise in cloud and automation. Certified Kubernetes or AWS DevOps profiles may command the upper range.

Senior and lead DevOps engineers with over 5 years of experience and responsibilities in architecture or team management earn between CHF 130,000 and CHF 160,000, or more for strategic roles in large groups.

Optimize Your DevOps Strategy to Accelerate Performance

The DevOps engineer is a catalyst for agility and reliability in companies facing rapid evolution and service-continuity challenges. Their missions cover pipeline automation, IaC, monitoring, and cross-team collaboration, ensuring optimal time-to-market.

To recruit the right profile, target technical skills, open-source culture, and the ability to fit into a continuous-improvement mindset. Certifications and field experience facilitate identifying experts who can drive these initiatives.

Our Edana experts support CIOs, CTOs, and operations leaders in defining needs, selecting talent, and implementing DevOps processes tailored to each context. We are also engaged in software development and custom infrastructure projects.

Discuss your challenges with an Edana expert

Cybersecurity is often seen by SMEs as a heavy, costly burden that hampers operational responsiveness and innovation. Yet adopting a pragmatic, context-driven approach makes it possible to build an effective defense without weighing down processes. By relying on tailored internal governance, tiered strategies, and security-by-design partnerships, you can achieve a coherent, scalable maturity level. This article highlights the most common mistakes to correct first, the steps to set a roadmap, the importance of leadership, and harnessing collective intelligence to strengthen digital resilience over the long term.

Fix the Most Common Mistakes to Reduce Risk

Many SMEs mistakenly treat cybersecurity as a one-off project rather than an ongoing process. Yet basic gaps can expose entire systems to major compromise risks.

Common Mistake 1: No MFA on Critical Access

Failing to deploy multi-factor authentication (MFA) is one of the most exploited vulnerabilities by attackers. Stolen or guessed credentials then grant persistent access to sensitive systems. Adding a second factor (mobile app, hardware token, or OTP via email) provides a simple, effective barrier against automated intrusions.

Implementing MFA typically takes a few hours without altering the existing architecture. Most open-source platforms and cloud solutions offer out-of-the-box modules, preventing technology lock-in. This effort yields a rapid return on investment by immediately neutralizing a major category of brute-force or phishing attacks.

Example: A Swiss precision engineering SME suffered a breach through an administrator account without MFA. The attacker deployed ransomware that halted production for two days. After a 50,000 CHF ransom demand, the IT team enforced MFA on all access, reducing unauthorized takeover attempts to zero.

Common Mistake 2: Missing Asset Inventory and Classification

Without an accurate inventory of assets (servers, applications, accounts, data flows), you cannot prioritize security actions. Lacking a map, it’s impossible to measure risk exposure or identify critical points. A quantified, categorized resource register is the first step in a pragmatic cybersecurity plan.

Classification distinguishes elements essential to business operations from those with limited impact if disrupted. This process uses automated tools or manual audits, often supplemented by a workshop with business stakeholders. It then streamlines budget allocation and scheduling of updates and vulnerability tests.

By integrating the inventory into an internal repository, IT leaders can trigger targeted alerts when anomalies or new CVEs are detected. This initial transparency paves the way for agile, continuous security management.

Common Mistake 3: Governance and Outsourcing Without Oversight

Outsourcing large swaths of your cybersecurity to a provider without a clear governance framework creates blind spots. Contracts must include performance indicators (response times, detection rates, remediation SLAs) and regular reporting. Without follow-up, external partners become a black box, disconnected from business priorities.

Effective governance relies on an internal security committee, bringing together the CIO, compliance officer, and business representatives. These bodies validate architectural decisions and oversee audits, ensuring a shared vision. They also arbitrate reversibility needs to avoid vendor lock-in.

Quarterly service agreement reviews—examining incidents and improvement recommendations—foster a continuous improvement dynamic aligned with the company’s resilience goals.

Set a Maturity Level and Progress in Phases to Strengthen Cyber Protection

Defining a target maturity level structures skill building and allocates resources responsibly. An incremental, phased approach ensures quick wins and secure management at each step.

Assessment and Formalization of the Target Level

Start by selecting a recognized framework (ISO 27001, NIST Cybersecurity Framework) and conducting an audit to assess your current state. This phase identifies covered domains (identity, access management, monitoring, incident response) and scores each on a 1–5 maturity scale.

Formalizing the target level takes into account your industry, data volume, and regulatory obligations (nLPD, GDPR, sectoral requirements). For example, the company might aim for level 3 (“managed and defined”) in governance and level 2 (“managed on an ad hoc basis”) in anomaly detection.

Aligning your target maturity with business strategy ensures coherence between cyber defense and growth or digital transformation priorities.

Phased Action Plan and Quick Wins

The action plan breaks down into quick wins, consolidation projects, and architectural initiatives. Quick wins address critical vulnerabilities (MFA, patch management) and misconfigurations identified during the audit, delivering visible results in weeks.

Consolidation projects focus on processes: automated inventory, network segmentation, formalized incident procedures. They typically span months with defined deliverables at each stage. Architectural initiatives include setting up an internal SOC or modular, open-source SIEM.

Reviewing each phase measures its impact on overall risk and adjusts priorities for the next stage, ensuring budgets align with business benefits.

Example: A Swiss mid-market retail company targeted NIST CSF level 3 in 18 months. After an initial audit, it rolled out quick wins (MFA, inventory, segmentation), then deployed an open-source SIEM in a pilot scope. This approach reduced unhandled critical alerts by 60 % within six months while preparing for industrial-scale implementation.

Continuous Measurement and Ongoing Adjustments

Key indicators (mean detection time, vulnerability remediation rate, percentage of assets covered) must be tracked regularly. Management is handled through a security dashboard accessible to governance and updated automatically as data flows in.

Quarterly reviews allow plan adjustments based on emerging risks (new threats, acquisitions, architectural changes). They ensure maturity progresses steadily and aligns with the evolving operational context.

This continuous measurement and improvement loop prevents stagnation and avoids reverting to reactive practices, ensuring cybersecurity is truly embedded in business processes.

{CTA_BANNER_BLOG_POST}

Engage Management in the Security Strategy and Reconcile Agility with Safety

Without active executive buy-in, cybersecurity remains a mere technical checklist. Choosing IT partners that embed security from the design phase combines responsiveness with operational robustness.

Executive-Led Governance

Leadership engagement creates strong, legitimate momentum across all teams. Executive sponsorship secures resources, expedites decision-making, and integrates cybersecurity into business steering committees, preventing it from remaining a marginal “IT project.”

Establishing a steering committee with the CIO, CFO, and business representatives ensures regular tracking of security metrics and incorporates cyber resilience into the strategic roadmap. Budget decisions and operational priorities are thus aligned with the risk tolerance defined by the company.

Formalizing this structure evolves internal culture, turning cybersecurity into a competitive advantage rather than a mere constraint.

Collaboration with Security-Minded IT Partners

Working with vendors or integrators who design their offerings on “secure by design” principles eliminates many remediation steps. These partners provide modular building blocks based on proven open-source technologies, enabling you to assemble a hybrid, resilient, scalable ecosystem.

Choosing modular, open solutions prevents vendor lock-in and simplifies integrating complementary services (vulnerability scanning, incident orchestration). Partnerships must be formalized through agreements ensuring access to source code, logs, and deployment workflows.

Example: A Swiss pharmaceutical company selected an open-source patient portal framework with embedded security modules (strong authentication, auditing, access control). The solution was deployed in one month within a regulated environment, while retaining the ability to add certified third-party services.

Maintaining Agility and Performance

Adopting agile methods (sprints, integrated security reviews, secure CI/CD pipelines) ensures new developments meet security standards from the outset. Automated gates validate each code branch before merging, minimizing regressions.

Automated vulnerability tests and dependency scans in the delivery chain prevent the introduction of flaws. Teams can thus deliver rapidly without compromising robustness and receive immediate feedback on remediation points.

This “shift-left” security approach increases developer accountability and breaks down IT-security silos, resulting in a smoother, more secure innovation cycle.

Leverage Collective Intelligence to Enhance Security Efficiently

Cybersecurity isn’t built in isolation but through collaboration among peers and experts from various fields. Benchmarking, coaching, and simulations disseminate best practices and continuously improve the company’s posture.

Shared Benchmarking and Audits

Joining sector-specific exchange groups or IT leadership clubs allows you to compare practices with similarly sized companies. Sharing incident experiences and tools reveals effective strategies and pitfalls to avoid.

Cross-audits conducted by internal or external peers provide fresh perspectives on architectural choices and vulnerability management processes. They often uncover blind spots and generate immediately actionable recommendations.

This collective approach strengthens community spirit and encourages maintaining high vigilance by pooling incident lessons and feedback.

Coaching and Skills Development

Knowledge transfer through coaching sessions, hands-on workshops, and certification training elevates the skill level of IT teams and managers. Topics include detection tools, log analysis techniques, and crisis management.

Internal workshops led by external experts or mentoring sessions among IT leaders promote best practice dissemination. They empower teams to act autonomously and make informed decisions during incidents.

Investing in skills development is a durable resilience lever, embedding a security culture in daily operations.

Phishing Simulations and Crisis Exercises

Running controlled phishing campaigns exposes staff to real-world threats and assesses detection and response capabilities. Results help tailor awareness content and identify individuals needing additional support.

Crisis exercises that simulate an intrusion or data breach engage all stakeholders: IT, communications, legal, and leadership. They validate procedures, decision chains, and incident management tools. These drills refine operational readiness and reduce response times.

Repeating these exercises fosters a shared security reflex, limiting the real impact of an incident and strengthening team trust.

Adopt a Pragmatic, Scalable Cybersecurity Approach to Sustainably Secure Your Operations

Structuring an SME’s cybersecurity without burdening operations relies on clear diagnostics, fixing basic vulnerabilities, and a phased progression aligned with strategic goals. Management involvement, selecting secure-by-design partners, and leveraging collective intelligence all reinforce security culture. This incremental approach delivers both agility and robustness.

In the face of ever-more sophisticated threats, tailored, modular support is essential, adapting to your maturity level and business stakes. The Edana experts are ready to assess your security posture, define pragmatic milestones, and drive your cyber transformation with agility and humanity.

Discuss Your Challenges with an Edana Expert

Faced with cumbersome manual processes, risky deployments and hidden operational debt that hinders innovation, adopting a DevOps approach becomes essential. A DevOps engineer brings pipeline automation, environment security and cross-functional collaboration to accelerate and stabilize production releases. This guide will help you identify the right moment to hire this strategic profile, define its key skills, structure your selection process and consider outsourcing if necessary. Drawing on concrete examples from Swiss companies, you’ll understand how a DevOps engineer can transform your IT infrastructure into a reliable, scalable performance driver.

Identifying the Need: DevOps Signals and Maturity

Several indicators reveal when it’s time to onboard a DevOps engineer to professionalize your workflows. Delivery delays, a rising number of production incidents and chronic lack of automation are alerts you can’t ignore.

Organizational Warning Signs

When development and operations teams work in silos, every change triggers manual approvals and support tickets, increasing the risk of human error. This often leads to recurring production incidents and resolution times that hurt your time-to-market. Without a mature CI/CD pipeline, each deployment becomes a major undertaking, requiring planning, manual testing and corrective interventions.

One Swiss manufacturing company we audited had a weekly deployment cycle for its business application that took five days, tying up internal resources and causing regular downtimes on its customer portal. The arrival of a DevOps engineer reduced this cycle to a few hours by automating all tests and orchestrating deployments with containers.

It’s also important to monitor incident ticket turnaround times. When over 30% of requests relate to deployment disruptions, operational technical debt is likely slowing your business. Recognizing this is the first step toward building a prioritized DevOps backlog.

Assessing CI/CD Maturity

Evaluating your CI/CD maturity involves analyzing deployment frequency, build failure rates and automated test coverage. A low level of automated pipelines signals the urgent need for a specialized hire or external support. Implementing precise metrics—such as lead time for changes and mean time to recovery (MTTR)—is essential to quantify your potential gains.

In one Swiss fintech SME, we observed an MTTR of over six hours before hiring a DevOps engineer. After introducing automated unit tests and an instant rollback system, the MTTR dropped to under 30 minutes. This improvement directly boosted team confidence and that of banking partners.

Mapping pipeline stages, identifying bottlenecks and measuring the effectiveness of each automation are prerequisites. They enable you to craft a detailed specification for recruiting the DevOps profile best suited to your context.

Impact of Manual Processes on Time-to-Market

Manual processes increase delivery times and degrade output quality. Every non-automated intervention adds a risk of misconfiguration, often detected too late. The accumulation of these delays can render your product obsolete against competitors, especially in heavily regulated industries.

A Swiss industrial group whose IT department managed deployments via undocumented in-house scripts suffered systematic outages during security updates. Integrating a DevOps engineer skilled in infrastructure as code formalized and versioned all configurations, ensuring smooth, secure release cycles.

Gradually eliminating manual tasks lets your teams refocus on business value while securing environments and speeding up production releases.

Defining the Ideal DevOps Profile: Skills and Engagement Contexts

A DevOps engineer must combine deep technical expertise with business understanding to tailor automations to the company’s context. Their ability to select open-source, modular and scalable tools is a key success factor.

Core Technical Skills

A DevOps engineer should master CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions) and implement automated tests for every code change (unit, integration, regression). They must also be proficient with container orchestration tools like Kubernetes or Docker Swarm and comfortable with infrastructure as code scripts (Terraform, Ansible, Pulumi). These skills ensure a defined, versioned infrastructure that reduces errors from manual configurations.

Additionally, in-depth knowledge of monitoring and alerting systems (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack) is essential to anticipate incidents and maintain consistent service levels. Establishing clear metrics helps steer performance and quickly detect operational drifts.

Security should be integrated at every pipeline stage. A skilled DevOps engineer automates vulnerability scans (Snyk, Trivy) and enforces security policies (RBAC, Network Policies) from the infrastructure phase. This shift-left approach secures your deployment chain and minimizes delays from late-stage fixes.

Cloud Experience and Containerization

Depending on your environment—private, public or hybrid cloud—the DevOps engineer must understand each platform’s specifics. Experience with cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP or Swiss-certified data centers like Infomaniak) and the ability to dynamically orchestrate resources are crucial. Containerization decouples infrastructure and ensures application portability.

An IT services firm in French-speaking Switzerland, facing highly variable loads, hired a Kubernetes-savvy DevOps engineer. They implemented an autoscaling and canary deployment strategy, handling traffic spikes without overprovisioning resources.

Selecting open-source building blocks should align with longevity goals and minimal vendor lock-in. Modular solutions ensure controlled evolution and easy component replacement when needed.

Soft Skills and Cross-Functional Collaboration

Beyond technical prowess, a DevOps engineer needs excellent communication skills to unite development, operations and security teams. They facilitate pipeline-definition workshops, lead post-mortem reviews and drive continuous process improvement.

Initiative and clear documentation of procedures are vital to upskill internal teams. Knowledge transfer fosters a lasting DevOps culture and reduces dependency on a single expert.

Finally, agility and the ability to manage priorities in a fast-changing environment ensure a smooth, controlled DevOps transformation rollout.

{CTA_BANNER_BLOG_POST}

Recruitment Process: Attracting and Evaluating DevOps Talent

Hiring a DevOps engineer requires a rigorous approach, combining targeted sourcing with practical technical assessments. It’s as much about evaluating skills as cultural fit.

Strategies to Attract DevOps Profiles

To attract these sought-after profiles, showcase your automation projects, technical challenges and use of modern technologies. Participating in meetups, publishing technical articles or hosting internal hackathons highlight your DevOps maturity. Openness to open source and contributions to community projects are also strong selling points.

A Swiss-German electronics manufacturer we supported organized an internal CI/CD pipeline event with external experts. The initiative generated numerous applications and led to hiring a DevOps engineer who had contributed to multiple open-source projects.

Transparency on career paths, ongoing training and varied assignments are levers to convince a DevOps candidate to join your organization over a more lucrative competitor.

Technical Evaluation Criteria

Assess candidates with real-world scenarios: deploying a containerized application, setting up an automated testing pipeline or configuring scalable cloud infrastructure. Practical tests on a staging environment gauge code quality, security awareness and documentation skills.

Technical interviews should blend experience-based discussions with hands-on exercises. You can host a pair-programming workshop to define a Kubernetes manifest or a scripting exercise for infrastructure setup.

Beyond outcomes, active listening, a methodical approach and optimization mindset are key. A strong candidate will clearly justify their open-source tool choices and the modularity of their approach.

Practical Assessment Case

Offering an internal test project lets you observe candidate responsiveness and creativity. For example, ask them to design a full CI/CD pipeline for a simple web application, including canary deployments and automatic rollback. Evaluate on implementation speed, script quality and architectural robustness.

A well-known online retailer once incorporated such an exercise into their recruitment process. The successful candidate deployed a Node.js application on Kubernetes with automated tests in under an hour, demonstrating efficiency and expertise.

This practical exercise fosters dialogue and reveals soft skills: the ability to ask clarifying questions, document the environment and suggest improvements at session’s end.

DevOps Outsourcing: An Alternative to Accelerate Transformation

Partnering with a DevOps provider gives you proven expertise, rapid upskilling and reduced risks associated with lengthy hires. Outsourcing offers greater flexibility to handle activity peaks.

Benefits of Outsourcing

Outsourcing grants immediate access to diverse DevOps competencies: infrastructure as code, CI/CD pipelines, security and monitoring. It enables you to kick-off refactoring and automation projects quickly while controlling operational costs.

You benefit from structured knowledge transfer through ongoing training sessions and documented deliverables. This approach accelerates internal skill development and ensures solution sustainability.

Contracting a specialized partner allows you to scale resources according to your digital transformation roadmap, without the delays and costs of traditional recruitment.

Selecting the Right Partner

Choose your DevOps provider based on sector experience, open-source expertise and ability to propose modular, secure architectures. Review their reference diversity, contextual approach and commitment to avoiding vendor lock-in.

A Swiss insurer recently engaged a DevOps specialist to lead its migration to a hybrid cloud program. The external expert helped define pipelines, automate security tests and implement centralized monitoring, all while training internal teams.

Combining internal and external skills is a recipe for success. Ensure the partner offers a tailored upskilling plan matching your maturity level.

Integration and Skill Transfer

Your collaboration plan should include onboarding phases, regular workshops and milestone reviews with IT and business governance. The goal is to build an authentic DevOps culture where every stakeholder understands the challenges and contributes to continuous improvement.

Documenting pipelines, incident playbooks and best practices is essential. These resources must be integrated into your knowledge base and continuously updated through shared reviews.

A successful partnership results in progressive autonomy of internal teams, capable of managing deployments, writing new scripts and extending automations independently, while maintaining strict security and observability standards.

Scaling with Confidence: Hiring a DevOps Engineer

Hiring a DevOps engineer or outsourcing this expertise transforms your deployment processes, reduces human errors and accelerates your time-to-market. You’ll identify warning signals, define the profile suited to your context, structure a rigorous selection process and, if needed, choose an expert partner for a rapid rollout.

Each approach must remain contextual, favoring open-source, modular and scalable solutions to avoid vendor lock-in and ensure infrastructure longevity. The goal is to create a virtuous circle where teams focus on value creation, not incident management.

Our Edana experts are at your disposal to support you at every step of this transformation: from maturity assessment to implementing secure CI/CD pipelines, defining your recruitment criteria or selecting a DevOps partner.

Discuss your challenges with an Edana expert

In increasingly distributed and heterogeneous IT environments, cybersecurity can no longer rely on fixed perimeters. The Zero-Trust approach, combined with fine-grained Identity and Access Management (IAM), has become an essential pillar for protecting critical resources. It rests on the principles of “never trust by default” and “constantly verify” every access request, whether it originates from inside or outside the network.

At Edana, we are experts in software development, IT and web solution integration, information security, and digital ecosystem architecture. We always make it a point to create secure, robust, and reliable solutions for maximum peace of mind. In this article, we’ll explore how Zero-Trust and IAM work, the risks of improperly implementing these concepts and technologies, and finally the keys to a successful deployment.

Zero-Trust and IAM: Foundations of Trust for Complex IT Environments

Zero-Trust relies on systematically verifying every request and user without assuming their trustworthiness. IAM provides a centralized, granular identity management framework to control and audit every access.

In an ecosystem mixing public cloud, on-premises datacenters, and partner networks, each resource must be accessible according to a set of dynamic rules. IAM thus becomes the heart of the system, orchestrating the assignment, revocation, and auditing of access rights.

This synergy not only reduces the attack surface but also ensures full traceability of usage—essential for meeting regulatory requirements and security frameworks.

Key Concepts and Principles of Zero-Trust

Zero-Trust is founded on the idea that every entity—user, machine, or application—is potentially compromised. For each access, real-time controls must be applied, based on identity, context, and risk criteria.

These criteria include location, device type, authentication level, and time of the request. Dynamic rules can then adjust the required level of assurance—for example, by enforcing stronger multi-factor authentication.

Additionally, the Zero-Trust approach recommends strict network segmentation and micro-segmentation of applications to limit attack propagation and isolate critical environments.

The Central Role of IAM in a Zero-Trust Model

The IAM solution serves as the single source of truth for all identities and their associated rights. It enables lifecycle management of accounts, automates access requests, and ensures compliance.

Leveraging centralized directories and standard protocols (SAML, OAuth2, OpenID Connect), IAM simplifies the integration of new services—whether cloud-based or on-premise—without creating silos.

Approval workflows, periodic access reviews, and detailed connection auditing help maintain optimal security levels while providing a consolidated view for CIOs and IT directors.

Integration in a Hybrid, Modular Context

In an ideal world, each component connects transparently to the IAM platform to inherit the same security rules. A modular approach allows a mix of open-source building blocks and custom developments.

Bridges to legacy environments, custom protocols, and authentication APIs can be encapsulated in dedicated micro-services to maintain a clear, scalable architecture.

This modularity also ensures vendor independence, avoiding technological lock-in and facilitating future evolution.

Concrete Example: A Swiss Cantonal Bank

A Swiss cantonal bank operating across multiple jurisdictions centralized access management via an open-source IAM platform. Each employee benefits from automated onboarding, while any access to the internal trading platform triggers multi-factor authentication.

Network segmentation by product line reduced the average anomaly detection time by 70%. The bank thus strengthened its security posture without impacting user experience, all while complying with strict regulatory requirements.

Risks of an Inadequate Zero-Trust and IAM Approach

Without rigorous implementation, serious internal and external vulnerabilities can emerge and spread laterally. Poorly configured or partial IAM leaves backdoors exploitable by attackers or non-compliant uses.

Neglecting aspects of Zero-Trust or IAM doesn’t just create technical risk but also business risk: service interruptions, data leaks, and regulatory fines.

Poor segmentation or overly permissive policies can grant unnecessary access to sensitive data, creating leverage points for internal or external attacks.

Internal Vulnerabilities and Privilege Escalation

Accounts with overly broad rights and no periodic review constitute a classic attack vector. A compromised employee or application can then move without restriction.

Without precise traceability and real-time alerting, an attacker can pivot at will, reach critical databases, and exfiltrate information before any alert is generated.

Zero-Trust requires isolating each resource and systematically verifying every request, thus minimizing privilege escalation opportunities.

External Threats and Lateral Movement

Once the initial breach is exploited—say via a compromised password—the lack of micro-segmentation enables attackers to traverse your network unchecked.

Common services (file shares, RDP access, databases) become channels to propagate malicious payloads and rapidly corrupt your infrastructure.

A well-tuned Zero-Trust system detects every anomalous behavior and can limit or automatically terminate sessions in the event of significant deviation.

Operational Complexity and Configuration Risks

Implementing Zero-Trust and IAM can appear complex: countless rules, workflows, and integrations are needed to cover all business use cases.

Poor application mapping or partial automation generates manual exceptions, sources of errors, and undocumented workarounds.

Without clear governance and metrics, the solution loses coherence, and teams ultimately disable protections to simplify daily operations—sacrificing security.

Concrete Example: A Swiss Insurer

An organization in the para-public training sector deployed a centralized IAM system, but certain critical tax applications remained outside its scope. Business teams bypassed the platform for speed.

This fragmentation allowed exploitation of a dormant account, which served as an entry point to steal customer data. Only a comprehensive review and uniform integration of all services closed the gap.

{CTA_BANNER_BLOG_POST}

Strategies and Technologies to Deploy Zero-Trust and IAM

A structured, progressive approach—leveraging open-source, modular solutions—facilitates the establishment of a Zero-Trust environment. A micro-segmented architecture driven by IAM ensures continuous, adaptable control aligned with business needs.

The key to a successful deployment lies in defining clear governance, an access framework, and a technical foundation capable of integrating with existing systems while guaranteeing scalability and security.

Open-source components deliver flexibility and transparency, while authentication and logging micro-services provide the fine-grained traceability necessary to detect and respond to incidents.

Governance and Access Policies

Before any implementation, formalize roles, responsibilities, and the access request validation process. Each business role is assigned a set of granular access profiles.

Dynamic policies can automatically adjust rights based on context: time, location, or adherence to a predefined risk threshold.

Periodic reviews and self-attestation workflows ensure only necessary accounts remain active, thereby reducing the attack surface.

Modular Architecture and Micro-Segmentation

Network segmentation into trust zones isolates critical services and limits the blast radius of a potential compromise. Each zone communicates via controlled gateways.

At the application level, micro-segmentation isolates micro-services and enforces access controls on every data flow. Policies can evolve without impacting the entire ecosystem.

This IAM-enforced, proxy- or sidecar-orchestrated approach provides a strict trust perimeter while preserving the flexibility essential for innovation.

Scalable, Interoperable Open-Source Solutions

Tools like Keycloak, Open Policy Agent, or Vault offer a solid foundation for authentication, authorization, and secrets management. They are backed by active communities.

Their plugin and API models allow adaptation to specific contexts, integration of connectors to existing directories, or development of custom business workflows.

Vendor independence reduces recurring costs and ensures a roadmap aligned with the open-source ecosystem, avoiding vendor lock-in.

Concrete Example: An Industrial Manufacturer Using Keycloak and Open Policy Agent

A global industrial equipment manufacturer adopted Keycloak to centralize access to its production applications and customer portals. Each facility has its own realm shared by multiple teams.

Implementing Open Policy Agent formalized and deployed access rules based on time, location, and role—without modifying each application. Configuration time dropped by 60%, while security was strengthened.

Best Practices for a Successful Deployment

The success of a Zero-Trust and IAM project depends on a thorough audit, an agile approach, and continuous team upskilling. Regular governance and tailored awareness ensure long-term adoption and effectiveness.

Beyond technology choices, internal organization and culture determine success. Here are some best practices to support the transition.

Audit and Context Assessment

A comprehensive inventory of applications, data flows, and existing identities measures maturity and identifies risk areas.

Mapping dependencies, authentication paths, and access histories builds a reliable migration plan, prioritizing the most critical zones.

This diagnosis informs the roadmap and serves as a benchmark to track progress and adjust resources throughout the project.

Agile Governance and Continuous Adaptation

Adopting short deployment cycles (sprints) allows progressive validation of each component: IAM onboarding, MFA, network segmentation, dynamic policies…

A centralized dashboard with KPIs (adoption rate, blocked incidents, mean time to compliance) ensures visibility and rapid feedback.

Successive iterations foster team ownership and reduce risks associated with a massive, sudden cut-over.

Team Training and Awareness

Security by design requires understanding and buy-in from everyone: developers, system admins, and end users. Hands-on workshops reinforce this culture.

Training sessions cover authentication best practices, daily security habits, and the use of the implemented IAM and MFA tools.

Regular reminders and incident simulations maintain vigilance and ensure procedures are learned and applied.

Turn Your Zero-Trust Security into a Competitive Advantage

By combining a rigorous audit, modular open-source solutions, and agile governance, you enhance your security posture without stifling innovation. Zero-Trust and IAM then become levers of resilience and trust for your stakeholders.

At Edana, our experts guide you through every step: strategy definition, technical integration, and team enablement. Adopt a contextual, evolving approach—free from vendor lock-in—to build a secure, sustainable IT ecosystem.

Discuss your challenges with an Edana expert

Facing the growing number of cyberattacks, protecting digital assets and sensitive data has become a strategic priority for Swiss businesses. Security responsibilities fall to CIOs, IT directors, and executive management, who must anticipate risks while ensuring operational continuity. A robust cybersecurity plan is based on threat identification, business impact assessment, and implementation of appropriate measures. In a context of accelerating digitalization, adopting a modular, scalable, open-source approach helps minimize vendor lock-in and maximize system resilience. This article outlines the main cyber threats, their tangible consequences, specific recommendations, and an operational checklist to secure your business.

Identifying and Anticipating Major Cyber Threats

Swiss companies face a growing variety of cyber threats, from phishing to insider attacks. Anticipating these risks requires detailed mapping and continuous monitoring of intrusion vectors.

Phishing and Social Engineering

Phishing remains one of the most effective attack vectors, relying on the psychological manipulation of employees. Fraudulent emails often mimic internal communications or official organizations to entice clicks on malicious links or the disclosure of credentials. Social engineering extends this approach to phone calls and instant messaging exchanges, making detection more complex.

Beyond generic messages, spear-phishing targets high-value profiles, such as executives or finance managers. These tailored attacks are crafted using publicly available information or data from professional networks, which enhances their credibility. A single compromised employee can open the door to a deep network intrusion, jeopardizing system confidentiality and integrity.

To maintain clarity, it is essential to keep an incident history and analyze thwarted attempts. Monitoring reported phishing campaigns in your industry helps anticipate new scenarios. Additionally, regularly updating anti-spam filters and implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) help reduce the attack surface.

Malware and Ransomware

Malware refers to malicious software designed to infect, spy on, or destroy IT systems. Among these, ransomware encrypts data and demands a ransom for access restoration, severely disrupting operations. Propagation can occur via infected attachments, unpatched vulnerabilities, or brute-force attacks on remote access points.

Once deployed, ransomware often spreads laterally by exploiting accumulated privileges and file shares. Unsegmented external backups may also be compromised if they remain accessible from the primary network. Downtime resulting from a ransomware attack can last days or even weeks, leading to significant operational and reputational costs.

Prevention involves continuous hardening of workstations, network segmentation, and regular security patching. Sandboxing solutions and behavioral detection complement traditional antivirus tools by identifying abnormal activity. Finally, ransomware simulation exercises strengthen team preparedness for incident response.

Insider Threats and Human Error

Employees often represent the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain, whether through negligence or malicious intent. Unrevoked ex-employee access, inappropriate file sharing, or misconfigured cloud applications can all lead to major data leaks. These incidents underscore the crucial need for access governance and traceability.

Not all insider threats are intentional. Handling errors, use of unsecured USB keys, or reliance on unauthorized personal tools (shadow IT) expose the organization to unforeseen vulnerabilities. A lack of audit logs or periodic access-rights reviews then complicates incident detection and the swift return to a secure state.

For example, a mid-sized bank discovered that a senior employee had accidentally synchronized their personal folder to an unencrypted public cloud storage service. Sensitive customer data circulated for several days before detection, triggering an internal investigation, access revocation, and an immediate enhancement of training programs.

Assessing the Direct Consequences of Attacks

Cyberattacks generate financial, organizational, and reputational impacts that can threaten long-term viability. Analyzing these consequences helps prioritize defense measures according to business risk.

Financial Losses and Remediation Costs

A successful attack can incur high direct costs: ransom payments, security expert fees, legal expenses, and partner compensation. Additional spending arises from system restoration and rebuilding compromised infrastructures. Cyber insurance policies may cover part of these costs, but deductibles and exclusions often limit the actual benefit for the company.

Beyond the ransom itself, a detailed assessment of staff hours, service interruptions, and security investments is essential. A malware-infected machine often requires full replacement, especially if firmware or microcode is compromised. This technical remediation places a heavy burden on the IT budget.

For example, an industrial manufacturer had its production environment paralyzed by ransomware. Total remediation costs, including external assistance and infrastructure rebuilding, exceeded CHF 700,000. Delivery schedules were affected, and an internal audit uncovered multiple firewall configuration flaws in the industrial network.

Loss of Trust and Reputational Impact

Data breaches involving customer information or trade secrets shake partners’ and clients’ confidence. Publicized incidents can trigger regulatory investigations and fines, particularly when Swiss (nLPD) or European (GDPR) regulations are violated. Post-incident communication then becomes a delicate exercise to mitigate brand damage.

A data leak also exposes the company to collective or individual legal actions from affected parties seeking compensation. Cyber litigation firms mobilize quickly, adding legal costs and prolonging the crisis. A tainted reputation can deter future strategic partnerships and hinder access to financing.

For example, a retail group suffered a partial customer database leak that caused an 18 % drop in online traffic over three months. The company had to invest in re-engagement campaigns and offer free services to rebuild trust, resulting in a lasting impact on revenue.

Operational Disruption and Business Continuity

Availability-targeted attacks, such as DDoS or internal sabotage, can halt production, block supply chains, and disrupt customer services. ERP systems, ordering interfaces, and industrial controllers become inaccessible, causing costly line stoppages and productivity losses.

A disaster recovery plan (DRP) must identify critical functions, provide failover sites, and ensure rapid switchover. Failing to regularly test these scenarios leads to unexpected challenges and longer recovery times than anticipated. Every minute of downtime carries escalating operational costs.

A Swiss SME, for instance, experienced software sabotage on its ERP, slowing component shipments. Because the recovery plan was untested, it took over 48 hours to restore data, resulting in contractual penalties and a three-week delay on international orders.

{CTA_BANNER_BLOG_POST}

Deploying Tailored Defense Measures

A multilayered defense reduces the attack surface and limits incident propagation. Implementing controls aligned with business risk ensures enhanced resilience.

Perimeter Hardening and Network Segmentation

Isolating critical environments with distinct security zones (DMZs, VLANs) prevents lateral threat movement. Next-generation firewalls (NGFW) combined with intrusion prevention systems (IPS) filter traffic and block suspicious behavior before it reaches the network core.

Micro-segmentation in the cloud and data centers enables fine-grained rules for each instance or container. This segmentation ensures that compromising one service, such as a customer API, does not grant direct access to internal databases. Zero Trust policies reinforce this approach by continuously verifying the identity and context of every request.

Deploying a bastion host for remote access adds another control layer. All administrative access must pass through a single, logged point under strong authentication. This measure reduces exposed ports and provides vital traceability for post-incident investigations.

Identity Management and Access Controls

Access control relies on clear policies: each employee receives only the rights strictly necessary for their role. Periodic reviews (quarterly access review) detect obsolete privileges and adjust permissions accordingly. Role-based (RBAC) and attribute-based (ABAC) models structure this governance.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) strengthens identity verification, especially for sensitive administration or production environment access. Certificate-based solutions or hardware tokens offer a higher security level than SMS codes, which are often compromised.

A centralized Identity and Access Management (IAM) system synchronizes internal directories and cloud services, ensuring rights consistency and automated provisioning. Upon employee departure, immediate revocation prevents unauthorized access and data leakage.

Application Security and Continuous Updates

Application vulnerabilities are prime targets for attackers. A Secure Development Lifecycle (SDL) integrates static and dynamic code analysis from the earliest development stages. Regular penetration tests complement this approach by uncovering flaws that automated tools miss.

Patch management policies must prioritize fixes based on criticality and exposure. Open-source dependencies are tracked using inventory and scanning tools, ensuring prompt updates of vulnerable components. Implementing CI/CD pipelines with progressive deployments reduces regression risks.

For example, a Swiss retail chain faced targeted DDoS attacks on its e-commerce site every Friday evening. By accelerating the rollout of an intelligent load-balancing system and configuring automatic mitigation rules, malicious traffic was neutralized before reaching the application, ensuring continuous availability.

Adopting Proactive Governance and Monitoring

Effective cybersecurity demands continuous governance and integrated processes. Fostering an internal security culture and regular monitoring maximizes asset protection.

Employee Awareness and Training

Regular communication on security best practices heightens team vigilance. Simulated phishing campaigns measure responsiveness and identify employees requiring additional training. Short, interactive modules aid retention.

Management must also understand the strategic stakes of cybersecurity to align business objectives with investments. Cross-functional workshops bring together CIOs, business units, and security experts to validate priorities and track project progress.

Integrating cybersecurity into new-hire onboarding establishes a security-first mindset from day one. Role rotations and periodic refreshers ensure skills evolve alongside emerging threats.

Real-Time Monitoring and Threat Intelligence

A Security Operations Center (SOC), or an outsourced equivalent, collects and correlates security events (logs, alerts, metrics). Dashboards provide quick anomaly detection and investigation prioritization. Automated response orchestration reduces exposure.

Threat intelligence enriches these mechanisms by feeding platforms with emerging Indicators of Compromise (IoCs). Signatures, behavioral patterns, and malicious IP addresses are blocked upstream before new malware samples reach the network.

Dark web and cybercriminal forum monitoring offers foresight into upcoming campaigns. Insights into exploit kits, zero-day vulnerabilities, and phishing tools in circulation help swiftly update internal defenses.

Incident Response and Recovery Planning

An incident playbook defines roles, processes, and tools to mobilize during an attack. Each scenario (malware, DDoS, data breach) has a checklist guiding teams from detection to restoration. Internal and external communications are planned to prevent misinformation.

Regular exercises, such as red-team simulations, validate procedure effectiveness and reveal friction points. Lessons learned feed a continuous improvement plan. The goal is to reduce Mean Time to Respond (MTTR) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO).

Geographically redundant backups and real-time replication in Swiss or European data centers ensure rapid recovery without compromising confidentiality. Access to failover environments is tested and validated periodically.

Regular Audits and Penetration Testing

External audits provide an independent assessment of existing controls. Testers replicate likely attack scenarios and challenge defenses to identify blind spots. Reports rank vulnerabilities by criticality.

Internal penetration tests, conducted by dedicated teams or specialized providers, cover network, application, and physical layers. Audit recommendations are integrated into IT roadmaps and tracked to closure.

Achieving ISO 27001 certification or the SuisseInfoSec label demonstrates a formalized security commitment. Compliance audits (GDPR, FINMA) are scheduled to anticipate legal requirements and strengthen governance.

Make Cybersecurity a Driver of Trust and Performance

Protecting against cyber threats requires a holistic approach: proactive risk identification, business-impact assessment, technical defense deployment, and rigorous governance. Leveraging modular, open-source architectures ensures continuous evolution without vendor lock-in. Employee training, real-time monitoring, incident response plans, and regular audits complete this framework to boost resilience.

In an era of rapid digitalization, a secure ecosystem becomes a competitive advantage. Our experts at Edana can guide you from strategy to execution, turning cybersecurity into a source of trust with stakeholders and sustainable performance.

Discuss Your Challenges with an Edana Expert