Govern Every Cloud Application Your Organization Uses — Sanctioned or Not
Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) provides visibility and control over cloud application usage — discovering shadow IT, enforcing data loss prevention policies in cloud services, detecting account compromise through behavioral analysis, and applying access controls based on user identity and device context.
What RLM Delivers on CASB
The average enterprise uses over 1,500 cloud applications. Most of them are unknown to IT and uncontrolled by security policy. CASB provides the cloud visibility and control layer that extends your security policies to the cloud applications your users access every day.
How We Approach CASB
Our security advisory runs from discovery and market evaluation through vendor selection and post-deployment optimization — scoped to the CASB decision in front of you.
Cloud Application Discovery
We assess your cloud application footprint — using network traffic analysis, SSO logs, and CASB discovery capabilities — to build the comprehensive inventory of sanctioned and shadow IT applications accessing corporate data.
CASB Platform Evaluation
We evaluate CASB platforms — Netskope, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, Palo Alto Prisma SaaS, Zscaler CASB — against your cloud application portfolio, DLP requirements, and the integration depth with your identity and network security architecture.
Policy Architecture Design
We design the CASB policy framework — app risk scoring, DLP policies for cloud data, anomaly detection rules, and the access control policies that block high-risk applications and enforce data handling requirements.
Inline vs. API-Based Deployment
CASB deployment model determines the controls available. We advise on the inline (proxy-based) vs. API-based deployment approach appropriate for your cloud application mix and the control depth required.
CASB Evaluation Criteria
The questions below are the ones that decide whether a CASB investment pays back — and the ones vendors are least eager to answer.
Inline vs. API Control Depth
Inline CASB provides real-time control over all cloud traffic; API CASB provides post-event visibility and control for specific applications. Evaluate the control depth required for your use cases — DLP for data uploads requires inline; account compromise detection can use API.
Shadow IT Risk Assessment
Shadow IT applications range from low-risk productivity tools to high-risk file sharing services. Evaluate the risk scoring methodology and the policy framework for managing shadow IT — full block vs. monitor vs. educate approaches.
DLP Policy Fidelity
CASB DLP operates on cloud traffic that may be encrypted or formatted differently than on-premises traffic. Evaluate DLP policy fidelity for your specific sensitive data types — particularly unstructured data in cloud storage and collaboration tools.
Sanctioned App Control Depth
CASB should provide granular control within sanctioned applications — blocking file downloads to personal devices from corporate OneDrive, for example. Evaluate the granularity of control available for your most-used sanctioned applications.
User Experience Impact
Inline CASB adds latency to all cloud traffic. Evaluate the performance impact and the SSL inspection model — particularly for applications where latency sensitivity is high.
SASE Integration
CASB is increasingly delivered as part of SASE architecture. Evaluate whether your SASE platform provides equivalent CASB capabilities before investing in a dedicated CASB solution.
"RLM helped us build a security program that satisfied our board and our auditors — without locking us into a single vendor's roadmap. Their independence is the whole point."
We stay involved through implementation, because selection is the easy half.
Where This Matters Most
Sector-specific considerations we see repeatedly in security engagements.
A Sample of the Security Providers We Evaluate
RLM is vendor neutral. These are among 600+ providers in our evaluation set — inclusion here is not an endorsement, and we are paid by the provider you choose, not by any provider in particular. How that works →
Ready to Move on CASB?
Start with a no-cost conversation with an RLM security advisor — vendor neutral, no agenda, just clarity on where your gaps are and the right path to close them.
Talk to a Security Advisor