CSPM & Misconfiguration Detection • Raleigh, NC

Cloud Security Services in Raleigh, NC

Research Triangle Park hosts some of the densest cloud-adoption rates in the Southeast, but cloud migration without security architecture creates exposure that traditional perimeter tools cannot address. Petronella Technology Group, Inc. delivers Cloud Security Posture Management, misconfiguration detection, and compliance-aligned cloud governance for Raleigh organizations running AWS, Azure, and GCP workloads.

Trusted Since 2002 • BBB Accredited Since 2003 • 2,500+ Clients • Zero Breaches

Why Cloud Security

What Cloud Security Addresses for Triangle Organizations

Cloud providers secure the infrastructure. You are responsible for securing everything you build on top of it. That shared-responsibility gap is where breaches happen.

Misconfiguration Is the Top Cloud Risk

Over eighty percent of cloud breaches result from misconfigurations, not sophisticated attacks. Publicly exposed storage buckets, overly permissive IAM roles, unencrypted databases, and disabled logging are far more dangerous than zero-day exploits in cloud environments.

RTP Cloud Ecosystem

Research Triangle Park's proximity to major cloud provider points of presence gives Raleigh businesses low-latency access to AWS, Azure, and GCP regions. That accessibility drives rapid cloud adoption, but without proper security architecture, it also accelerates risk accumulation.

Compliance in the Cloud

HIPAA, CMMC, PCI DSS, and the NC Identity Theft Protection Act apply equally to data stored in the cloud. Cloud migration does not eliminate compliance obligations; it changes where and how controls must be implemented, often increasing complexity.

Visibility Gap

Traditional network-monitoring tools cannot see inside cloud environments. Without cloud-native security monitoring, Raleigh organizations lose visibility into user activity, API calls, configuration changes, and data movement that would be fully visible in on-premises environments.

Cloud Security for the Research Triangle's Cloud-First Economy

The Research Triangle has embraced cloud computing at a pace that outstrips most metropolitan areas in the Southeast. Red Hat's OpenShift platform, originally developed in Raleigh, has driven container and Kubernetes adoption across local enterprises. IBM's expanded Triangle operations have pushed hybrid-cloud architectures into the mainstream. Hundreds of SaaS companies, fintech startups, and healthtech firms built entirely on cloud infrastructure have established headquarters or engineering offices along the Glenwood corridor and in RTP. Even traditionally conservative sectors like healthcare and government contracting have accelerated cloud migrations, moving electronic health records, financial systems, and collaboration platforms to AWS, Azure, and GCP.

This cloud-first momentum creates a security paradox. Cloud platforms offer capabilities that would be impossible to replicate on-premises, but they also introduce risks that traditional security architectures were never designed to address. The shared-responsibility model means the cloud provider secures the underlying infrastructure while the customer is responsible for securing configurations, identities, data, applications, and access controls. Most breaches in cloud environments trace back to customer-side misconfigurations: publicly accessible S3 buckets, IAM policies granting excessive privileges, databases deployed without encryption, logging disabled on critical services, and security groups allowing unrestricted inbound access.

Petronella Technology Group, Inc. has secured cloud environments for Triangle businesses since the earliest days of enterprise cloud adoption. Our cloud security practice combines Cloud Security Posture Management with AI-powered anomaly detection that identifies misconfigurations, compliance drift, and suspicious activity across multi-cloud environments in real time. Our AI security platform correlates cloud-native logs, API activity, and identity behavior to detect threats that rule-based tools miss. Craig Petronella's 30+ years of cybersecurity expertise and our team's deep knowledge of the Triangle's regulatory landscape ensure that every cloud security engagement delivers both technical protection and compliance documentation. Whether you are migrating your first workload to the cloud or securing a complex multi-account environment spanning three providers, our Raleigh-based team brings the depth required to protect your cloud investment.

Our Services

Comprehensive Cloud Security Capabilities

Securing AWS, Azure, and GCP environments for Raleigh organizations across every industry vertical

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

CSPM continuously monitors your cloud environments against security best practices and compliance benchmarks. We deploy automated scanning that evaluates every resource, configuration, and policy across AWS, Azure, and GCP against CIS Benchmarks, SOC 2 criteria, HIPAA requirements, and CMMC controls. Misconfigurations are detected within minutes of deployment and flagged for immediate remediation.

For Raleigh organizations operating multi-cloud environments, our CSPM platform provides a single pane of glass that normalizes security findings across providers. An overly permissive IAM role in AWS, a misconfigured network security group in Azure, and an unencrypted Cloud SQL instance in GCP all appear in the same prioritized dashboard with consistent risk scoring and remediation guidance.

Misconfiguration Detection and Auto-Remediation

Cloud environments change constantly as developers deploy new resources, modify configurations, and connect services. Each change can introduce a misconfiguration that exposes data or creates an attack path. Our detection engine monitors CloudTrail, Azure Activity Log, and GCP Cloud Audit Logs to identify configuration changes in real time and evaluate each change against security policies.

For pre-approved remediation scenarios, our platform can automatically revert dangerous configurations: closing publicly exposed storage buckets, revoking overly permissive IAM policies, enabling encryption on unprotected data stores, and restoring logging on critical services. Auto-remediation closes the window between misconfiguration and exploitation from hours to seconds, preventing the exposure that causes most cloud breaches.

Cloud Identity and Access Management Security

Identity is the new perimeter in cloud environments. Compromised credentials and misconfigured IAM policies are the primary vectors for cloud breaches. We audit IAM configurations across all cloud accounts to identify excessive permissions, unused service accounts, API keys without rotation, missing MFA enforcement, and cross-account trust relationships that create unintended access paths.

Our least-privilege analysis compares actual permission usage against granted permissions to identify over-provisioned identities. For Raleigh organizations with hundreds of cloud users and service accounts, this analysis typically reveals that eighty percent of granted permissions are never used, representing unnecessary attack surface. We implement permission boundaries, service control policies, and conditional-access rules that enforce least privilege without disrupting legitimate workflows.

Cloud Workload Protection and Container Security

Raleigh's technology sector runs heavily on containers and Kubernetes, driven in part by Red Hat's local influence and OpenShift adoption. We secure container workloads from build to runtime: scanning Docker images for known vulnerabilities in base layers and dependencies, enforcing admission policies that prevent insecure images from deploying, monitoring runtime behavior for anomalous process execution and network connections, and protecting Kubernetes API servers from unauthorized access.

For serverless workloads (Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Functions), we implement function-level monitoring that detects unauthorized code changes, excessive permission usage, and anomalous invocation patterns. Our protection extends to Infrastructure-as-Code templates, scanning Terraform, CloudFormation, and Bicep for security misconfigurations before they reach production.

AI-Powered Cloud Threat Detection

Rule-based detection misses novel attack patterns. Our AI-driven cloud security platform uses behavioral analytics to establish baselines for normal cloud activity and detect deviations that signal compromise. When a developer account suddenly begins enumerating IAM roles across all regions, or a service account starts accessing S3 buckets it has never touched, our ML models flag the anomaly immediately.

Threat correlation across cloud providers identifies multi-stage attacks that span environments. An attacker who compromises an Azure AD credential and then pivots to AWS through a federated trust relationship generates signals in both environments that individually appear benign but together reveal a coordinated attack. Our AI correlation engine connects these signals and generates high-confidence alerts that reduce false-positive fatigue while catching sophisticated threats.

Cloud Compliance Monitoring and Reporting

Compliance obligations do not disappear when data moves to the cloud. Our compliance monitoring continuously evaluates your cloud configuration against HIPAA, CMMC, PCI DSS, SOC 2, and NC regulatory requirements. Compliance dashboards show real-time posture with pass/fail status for each control, drift alerts when configurations fall out of compliance, and evidence-collection automation that captures the documentation auditors require.

For Raleigh healthcare organizations moving ePHI to the cloud, we verify BAA coverage with cloud providers, validate encryption configurations, ensure audit-logging meets HIPAA requirements, and document access controls. For defense contractors hosting CUI in cloud environments, we verify FedRAMP authorization of the cloud service, implement NIST 800-171 controls, and prepare CMMC assessment documentation.

Our Process

From Cloud Audit to Continuous Protection

A systematic approach to securing your cloud estate

1

Cloud Security Assessment

We audit your entire cloud footprint: accounts, subscriptions, projects, resources, configurations, identities, and data flows. The assessment evaluates posture against CIS Benchmarks and your applicable compliance frameworks, producing a prioritized findings report with risk-ranked misconfigurations.

2

Architecture Hardening

We remediate critical misconfigurations, implement security guardrails (service control policies, permission boundaries, network policies), enable comprehensive logging, and deploy encryption across data stores. IAM configurations are tightened to enforce least privilege.

3

Monitoring and Detection Deployment

We deploy CSPM, cloud workload protection, and AI-powered threat detection across all cloud environments. Real-time dashboards provide continuous visibility. Auto-remediation rules close common misconfigurations before they can be exploited.

4

Ongoing Management and Compliance

Continuous posture monitoring, monthly security reviews, compliance reporting, and incident-response support ensure your cloud environments remain secure as they evolve. Our team manages security operations so your developers can focus on building.

Why Petronella Technology Group, Inc.

Raleigh's Cloud Security Authority Since 2002

Multi-Cloud Expertise

We secure AWS, Azure, and GCP environments with equal depth. Through our partner network, our team has access to cloud-security certifications across all three platforms and understand the unique security models, API structures, and compliance features of each provider.

AI-Driven Detection

Our AI-powered platform detects threats that signature-based tools miss. Behavioral analytics identify credential compromise, insider threats, and multi-stage attacks across cloud environments in real time.

Compliance Integration

Every cloud security control maps to HIPAA, CMMC, PCI DSS, SOC 2, and NC regulatory requirements. Our compliance dashboards provide real-time evidence that auditors can verify directly, eliminating manual evidence-collection scrambles.

30+ Years of Security Depth

Craig Petronella brings more than three decades of cybersecurity expertise to cloud security architecture. Our team understands that cloud security is not a separate discipline but an extension of the comprehensive security program every Raleigh organization needs.

FAQ

Cloud Security Questions for Raleigh Organizations

What is the shared-responsibility model?

Cloud providers secure the physical infrastructure, network, and hypervisor. You are responsible for securing your data, identities, applications, configurations, and access controls. This division means that cloud breaches are almost always caused by customer-side misconfigurations, not provider failures.

Is cloud storage HIPAA compliant?

AWS, Azure, and GCP all offer HIPAA-eligible services, but eligibility does not equal compliance. You must configure encryption, access controls, logging, and backup properly, and the provider must sign a Business Associate Agreement. Many Raleigh healthcare organizations unknowingly store ePHI in non-HIPAA-eligible services or without required encryption, creating compliance violations.

Can we host CUI in the cloud under CMMC?

Yes, but only on cloud services with FedRAMP Moderate or equivalent authorization. AWS GovCloud, Azure Government, and Google Cloud for Government meet this requirement. Standard commercial cloud regions generally do not satisfy CMMC requirements for CUI storage. We help Raleigh defense contractors architect compliant cloud environments within authorized boundaries.

What is CSPM and why do we need it?

Cloud Security Posture Management continuously monitors cloud configurations against security baselines and compliance requirements. Without CSPM, misconfigurations can persist for months before discovery. With CSPM, they are detected in minutes and can be auto-remediated in seconds. It is the equivalent of continuous vulnerability scanning for cloud infrastructure.

How does AI improve cloud security?

AI establishes behavioral baselines for cloud users and services, then detects anomalies that indicate compromise: unusual API calls, new data-access patterns, privilege escalation attempts, and cross-account activity. Our AI platform correlates signals across multi-cloud environments to identify sophisticated attacks that rule-based detections miss.

Do you support multi-cloud environments?

Yes. Many Raleigh organizations use multiple cloud providers. Our platform provides unified security visibility across AWS, Azure, and GCP with consistent risk scoring, centralized compliance monitoring, and cross-cloud threat correlation from a single dashboard.

What is auto-remediation and is it safe?

Auto-remediation automatically corrects predefined misconfiguration types. We implement it selectively for high-confidence, low-disruption scenarios: closing public storage access, enforcing encryption, revoking unused API keys. Each auto-remediation rule is tested and approved by your team before activation. Complex changes route to human review.

How quickly can you secure our cloud environment?

Initial assessment takes one to two weeks. Critical misconfiguration remediation begins immediately upon discovery. Full CSPM and monitoring deployment typically completes within four to six weeks. Continuous protection begins from day one of monitoring deployment and improves as behavioral baselines mature over the following weeks.

Your Cloud Provider Secures the Infrastructure. Who Secures Your Configuration?

Petronella Technology Group, Inc. closes the shared-responsibility gap for Raleigh organizations. Schedule a cloud security assessment and discover the misconfigurations, compliance gaps, and visibility blind spots hiding in your cloud environment.

Trusted Since 2002 • BBB Accredited Since 2003 • 2,500+ Clients • Raleigh, NC