How OCI Cloud Guard Powers Multicloud Governance

Introduction

Multicloud is great! You get best-of-breed services, vendor flexibility, geographic options, and sometimes, a lower bill.

But then something happens.

One team spins up AWS accounts.
Another deploys workloads into Azure.
The DBA team is setting up Oracle Autonomous Databases on OCI.
Someone in analytics is playing with BigQuery on GCP.

And suddenly—you’re running four different clouds with four different security models, four different IAM systems, four different ways to tag resources.

This is where Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) steps in. CSPM tools ensure your cloud resources follow best practices, security rules, and compliance frameworks continuously.

What Is OCI Cloud Guard?

Cloud Guard is OCI’s built-in continuous security posture management (CSPM) capability.

It does two things exceptionally well:

1. Detects security issues.
2. Responds automatically (if you want it to).

It works across many OCI layers:

• IAM and identity drift
• Network configurations
• Storage exposures
• Database misconfigurations
• Logging inconsistencies
• Object storage settings
• Encryption gaps etc.

CloudGuard use cases in Cloud Governence

Use Case 1 – Identity & Access Governance in OCI

Cloud Guard helps by detecting:

• Users with broad, excessive IAM permissions
• API keys that haven’t rotated
• Policies that allow unchecked access
• Resources created by non-federated identities
• Suspicious identity activity patterns

Use Case 2 — Network & Perimeter Governance

In multicloud networking, you’ve got:

• VCNs
• NSGs
• Security Lists
• FastConnects
• Hybrid links
• Internet Gateways

Each cloud’s network model is slightly different, and drift happens fast.

Cloud Guard detects:

• Public subnets exposing internal workloads
• Unrestricted inbound rules (0.0.0.0/0)
• Risky egress rules
• Misconfigured routing
• Unintended exposure of OCI workloads in a hybrid environment

Use Case 3 — Storage & Data Governance

This is a big one. Data exposure is still the #1 cloud incident cause.

Cloud Guard:

• Detects publicly accessible OCI Object Storage buckets
• Flags unencrypted storage volumes
• Identifies unusual or suspicious bucket access
• Checks that proper KMS keys are used
• Ensures retention rules are configured

[Cloud Guard] → [Object Storage Detector] → [Responder]
                 | detects public bucket  | removes public access
                 | checks encryption      | enforces KMS policy

Use Case 4 — Automated Remediation & Cross-Cloud Workflows

With Cloud Guard you can create automatic workflows to:

• Quarantine instances
• Close dangerous network ports
• Remove public access from buckets
• Revoke bad permissions
• Apply correct encryption keys
• Auto-tag noncompliant resources

Here is a simple example of an OCI function that can be called by Cloud Guard.

{
  "eventType": "com.oraclecloud.cloudguard.config",
  "data": {
    "problemName": "Public Object Storage Bucket",
    "resourceId": "ocid1.bucket.oc1...",
    "severity": "HIGH"
  }
}

CSPM Comparison: OCI vs AWS vs Azure vs GCP

Below is a quick comparison table of different CSPM capabilities.

Conclusion

Cloud Guard brings:

• Built-in coverage
• Native database posture capabilities
• Compartment-based governance
• Automated remediation
• SIEM-friendly outputs
• Zero additional licensing cost

If your environment includes OCI, Cloud Guard is not optional—it’s foundational. Start simple. Turn it on. Review the findings. Automate what you can. Hope this helps!