New in Release 3.3: Expanded Google Cloud Support and Kion Customizations

Last updated on February 1st, 2023 at 3:02pm

We are very excited to announce support for many new Google Cloud features in our latest release, including compliance for Google Cloud projects! With our new features, we further redefine what “simple” means for multi-cloud environments. It shouldn’t be hard to secure your entire organization, no matter where your resources are. With Kion’s compliance and access features, you can be confident that each and every resource you have in Google Cloud, Azure, and AWS meets your compliance standards.

Simplifying Your Google Cloud

Google Cloud Compliance Support

We’ve extended our Cloud Custodian integration to monitor compliance on Google Cloud projects. You can now create compliance checks and view findings for Google Cloud alongside your checks for AWS and Azure. You shouldn’t have to adjust your compliance standards based on your cloud set up. Kion’s compliance checks and standards make it easy to view multiple measures of compliance for your entire organization. We help you find and remediate risks before they have time to become an issue, no matter where the resource is.

To get you started, we have added common checks for Google Cloud to our reference library. Our pre-made compliance checks can scan for resources with public access, resources with specific firewall configurations, resources without security features enabled (integrity monitoring, secureboot, shielded nodes, etc.), resources without valid certificates, and resources without backups. To start running these checks on your Google Cloud projects, simply add them to a compliance standard that is attached to a cloud rule.

Keep in mind, Cloud Custodian’s integration with Google Cloud is still in beta. At Kion, we will keep things as current as possible, but Cloud Custodian may make updates independent of Kion’s release schedule.

For more information, see our article Compliance Overview.

Google Cloud IAM Roles

You can now import Google Cloud IAM roles that you have defined in the Google Cloud platform. Using Kion as the central control point for all of your access settings helps ensure consistency and security across your projects.

Leverage your existing policies by importing them and using them in Kion cloud access roles. When you create a cloud access role, you can quickly select which IAM policies you want to use. Then, when someone federates into a project with that cloud access role, they automatically have your IAM policies applied to them. You can add roles to as many projects as you like, making it easy to ensure essential policies are applied everywhere.

For more information, see our article Google Cloud Built-In Role Definitions.

Feature Preview: Google Cloud Deployments Using Kubernetes

In this release, we are excited to share a new Kion deployment method for Google Cloud using Kubernetes clusters. Running one simple command in your Google Cloud project deploys everything Kion needs. Let us know how your deployment goes and what other Google Cloud features you would like to see in Kion.

We recommend using this method for non-production workloads while we gather feedback for a full release.

For information about the deployment, sign in to our Success Center to see our Google Cloud (GCP) Deployment Guide.

We love to build features that simplify and transform your experience in the cloud, and the best way to do that is with your input! To share your thoughts on the feature, email us at support[at]kion.io or join our Slack community and provide your input in the #feature-preview-feedback channel.

In-Depth Customizations

Seamless Integrations

We have gathered all our integrations together into one page, so you can easily see what is available and learn how to configure each one. In Kion, navigate to Settings > Integrations to see a full, searchable list of our current integrations.

Take a look and see if there are any products you are already using that we integrate with. Between our native installations and common integrations, Kion can seamlessly become part of your existing cloud workflows. We provide value out of the box, without requiring you to completely revamp your organization.

We also added a button to this page where you can request new integrations. If there is an integration that you think would further empower you in the cloud, let us know! We are always happy to find new partners that help us help you go farther faster.

For more information, see the Integrations section of our support center.

Individualized Compliance Scores

We added an option for you to customize the weight given to compliance severity levels for determining your compliance score. Adjusting severity weights helps Kion create a compliance score that is accurate to your unique compliance goals and chosen industry metrics.

If you don’t want informational findings to contribute to your compliance score, set their weight to 0. If you want critical findings to have a bigger impact, turn them up! You can view an overall compliance score on the Compliance Overview page or resource-specific scores on individual projects, OUs, accounts, compliance checks, and compliance standards. This gives you a quick way to evaluate which resources most urgently need your attention to restore compliance.

And as a little bonus, while we are talking about compliance findings, you can now sort your compliance findings by their severity, resource, region, date found, check, account, or project!

For more information, see our article Compliance Score.

That’s Not All! 

These are just the highlights! For details on all of our new features, changes, and bug fixes, visit our Support Center. 

If you're new to Kion, welcome! You can schedule a free demo to learn more about our comprehensive cloud enablement software. You can also follow us on Twitter  and LinkedIn for more cloud enablement news.