An international software development company.
In the fast-paced sector of software development, a prominent software development company recognized the need to bolster the security of its Azure cloud environment. For development organisations building modern cloud-native solutions, application and platform security directly influences time-to-market, customer trust, and regulatory compliance — particularly when development pipelines interact with corporate identity and data.
For organisations whose competitive differentiation lies in rapid delivery of cloud-native applications, security is a strategic enabler — not just a technical requirement. Misconfiguration or inconsistent deployment patterns can lead to unexpected outages, compliance risk, and damage to customer trust.
With a diverse portfolio of projects and a commitment to delivering cutting-edge software solutions, the company faced the challenge of ensuring that its cloud infrastructure and workloads were secure, compliant, and optimized for performance. Amidst the complexity of their Azure deployment, they identified gaps in their security posture but lacked a clear starting point and a structured approach to prioritising and addressing these vulnerabilities.
While cloud adoption and platform tooling gave the organisation confidence, that confidence was based on visibility of surface-level configurations, not on validated risk evidence aligned with real-world attack scenarios.
The software development company grappled with several key challenges in securing its Azure environment:
The client had confidence in their configuration based on default tooling and pipeline filters; however, like many teams, they lacked concrete evidence that environment controls aligned with the Azure Well-Architected security best practices, threat models and business logic executed in production.
Rather than taking a generic scan and fix approach, the assessment was designed to align security outcomes with the client’s development practices and scaling deployment pipelines. Metis Security embarked on a comprehensive Azure security assessment to address these challenges head-on. The solution comprised several key components:
An Azure security assessment was selected because of its emphasis on both cloud platform hardening and identity lifecycle governance — areas where default platform behaviour often diverges from secure operational practice.
The security assessment and subsequent recommendations led to significant improvements in the company’s Azure security posture:
The improved security posture also translates into greater confidence for architects, developers, and stakeholders, enabling secure innovation without slowing releases.
These outcomes not only reduced risk exposure, but also provided the client with a foundation for secure, repeatable deployments and increased confidence in both internal governance and external stakeholder assurance.
The Azure security assessment conducted by Metis Security marked a turning point for the software development company, transforming its approach to cloud security. By identifying critical vulnerabilities, standardising deployment processes, and embedding security into every stage of the development process, the company not only safeguarded its Azure environment but also set a new standard for security excellence in software development. This case study underscores the importance of a proactive and comprehensive approach to cloud security, highlighting how strategic investments in security assessments can yield long-term benefits for companies navigating the complexities of the cloud.
This case study reinforces how an evidence-based assessment integrated with development practices enables organisations to innovate securely and sustainably in the cloud.
