Securing Multi-Cloud Kubernetes Environment for a SaaS Provider

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TECHNOLOGY & SOFTWARE

Securing Multi-Cloud Kubernetes Environment for a SaaS Provider

A secure Kubernetes environment deployed across AWS, Azure, and GCP with centralized control.

Focus Areas

Kubernetes Security

Multi-Cloud Architecture

DevSecOps Enablement

Business Problem

A SaaS provider delivering AI-powered productivity tools across healthcare, finance, and logistics industries was expanding rapidly across AWS, Azure, and GCP. Its microservices architecture was deployed on Kubernetes clusters in a hybrid multi-cloud setup to meet client performance and data residency requirements. However, the security posture had not scaled with growth, exposing the platform to risks such as container sprawl, misconfigurations, and identity threats. The organization required a robust and centralized strategy to secure its Kubernetes environments without compromising speed or agility.

Key challenges:

  • Lack of Centralized Policy Management: Different teams used separate configurations across clusters and cloud platforms, creating security inconsistencies.

  • IAM Complexity: Developers and service accounts had overly broad permissions, violating least-privilege principles.

  • Insecure CI/CD Pipelines: Lack of image scanning, code signing, and secret management in build workflows.

  • Visibility Gaps: No unified view of workloads, vulnerabilities, or misconfigurations across multi-cloud environments.

  • Compliance Pressures: Clients required SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA-level security, with no unified auditing capabilities in place.

The Approach

Curate partnered with the SaaS provider to build a scalable security framework for its multi-cloud Kubernetes environment. The engagement focused on embedding security at every layer of the development lifecycle—container, cluster, pipeline, and identity—while automating governance and monitoring at scale.

Key components of the solution:

Discovery and Requirements Gathering: 

  • Architecture Review: Mapped out Kubernetes clusters across AWS EKS, Azure AKS, and GCP GKE with associated VPCs and services.

  • Risk Assessment: Identified high-risk containers, workloads with elevated privileges, and exposed service endpoints.

  • Access Audit: Analyzed IAM roles, RBAC configurations, and third-party integrations for over-provisioning and gaps.

  • Regulatory Compliance Review: Evaluated readiness for HIPAA, SOC 2, and ISO 27001 certifications.

  • Stakeholder Interviews: Collected insights from engineering, platform security, and compliance leaders.

Solution Design and Implementation:

  • Unified Policy Engine: Deployed OPA/Gatekeeper and Kyverno to enforce consistent security policies across clusters.

  • Identity & Access Hardening:

    • Integrated Kubernetes RBAC with cloud-native IAM.

    • Applied least-privilege access and enforced MFA for cluster admins.

    • Implemented service mesh identity management using Istio and SPIFFE.

  • Secure CI/CD Integration:

    • Embedded security scans (Snyk, Trivy) into pipelines.

    • Adopted GitOps with ArgoCD and image provenance via Sigstore/Cosign.

    • Centralized secrets with Vault and Sealed Secrets.

  • Network and Runtime Security:

    • Deployed Calico and Cilium for network policy enforcement.

    • Integrated Falco and Sysdig for runtime threat detection and logging.

  • Compliance Automation:

    • Enabled continuous controls monitoring with Drata and Bridgecrew.

    • Automated audit reporting across environments

  • Process Optimization and Change Management:

    • Security-as-Code Onboarding: Developed reusable policy-as-code templates for teams.

    • Knowledge Sharing: Conducted secure Kubernetes workshops and playbook walkthroughs.

    • Incident Response Drills: Simulated security breach scenarios to test observability and remediation workflows.

    • Continuous Improvement Loop: Integrated feedback from post-mortems and compliance reviews into engineering cycles.

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Business Outcomes

Hardened Kubernetes Environment


Reduced attack surface through enforced policies, IAM hardening, and workload isolation

Consistent Security Across Clouds


Unified policies and centralized observability brought consistent protection across AWS, Azure, and GCP

Achieved Regulatory Compliance


Enabled streamlined audits and met security standards required by enterprise customers.

Enhanced Threat Detection and Response


Real-time detection tools and alerting minimized mean time to detect (MTTD) and respond (MTTR)

Sample KPIs

Here’s a quick summary of the kinds of KPI’s and goals teams were working towards**:

Metric Before After Improvement
Policy violations/month 112 14 88% reduction
MTTR (security incidents) 36 hours 2.5 hours 93% faster response
Audit preparation time 4 weeks 4 days 85% faster readiness
Cluster misconfigurations 65 8 88% reduction
Secure image usage 54% 98% 44-point increase
**Disclaimer: The set of KPI’s are for illustration only and do not reference any specific client data or actual results – they have been modified and anonymized to protect confidentiality and avoid disclosing client data.

Customer Value

Security at Scale


Enforced security controls across a rapidly growing, multi-cloud Kubernetes architecture.

Audit Readiness


Dramatically improved audit posture, shortening certification timelines.

Sample Skills of Resources

  • Cloud Security Engineers: Designed IAM and network security across EKS, AKS, and GKE.

  • DevSecOps Engineers: Embedded security into CI/CD, GitOps, and container supply chains.

  • Kubernetes Platform Engineers: Hardened clusters and managed cluster-level policy enforcement.

  • Governance & Risk Specialists: Mapped technical controls to SOC 2, HIPAA, and ISO 27001.

  • SREs & Observability Leads: Integrated monitoring, alerting, and log aggregation tools.

Tools & Technologies

  • Cloud Providers: AWS EKS, Azure AKS, GCP GKE

  • Security Tools: Falco, Sysdig, Trivy, Snyk, Vault, Sealed Secrets

  • Policy Engines: OPA/Gatekeeper, Kyverno

  • CI/CD & GitOps: GitHub Actions, ArgoCD, Sigstore, Cosign

  • Compliance: Drata, Bridgecrew

  • Networking & Mesh: Calico, Cilium, Istio, SPIRE

  • Observability: Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, ELK Stack

Microsegmentation and network policies isolating services within the Kubernetes cluster.

Conclusion

By securing its multi-cloud Kubernetes environments, the SaaS provider transformed its DevSecOps maturity while aligning with client and regulatory expectations. Curate’s strategic approach empowered the organization to innovate confidently, protect sensitive workloads, and scale securely across cloud providers. With a hardened foundation and automated security processes, the provider is now equipped for sustainable growth in an increasingly compliance-driven market.

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