Post-Pandemic Cloud
All experts from the industry would agree that cloud is the future for corporate technology, no matter if we are talking about infrastructures, platforms, or services. Even though, this is not a new trend, it is the volume of new adopters that calls the attention. According to Market and Markets, by the end of 2025, the cloud computing market will have expanded to $832.1 billion. And the US has been leading this cloud adoption for the last 5 years, according to Gartner.
The actual perspectives of the economy suggest shows that the country must maintain its leadership as post-lockdown: the most recent monthly employment report, from September 03rd, 2021, points that more than 586,000 jobs were created over the previous month. The data shows that enterprises are ready to re-stablish their business and resume investments which will make them more innovative, agile, and competitive. Also, the timing is perfect. Both the technology and the market are mature enough to the popularization of the cloud.
The adoption curve of cloud solutions could be even faster but still, 66% of IT professionals consider security risk as their major concern migrating to cloud, as per to CIO Research Center Report Security. Indeed, the average cost of a data breach in 2020 was $3.86 million, according to a new report from IBM and the Ponemon Institute. The increase in cloud usage also means higher cyberattack treats, making security more important than ever.
To understand the security issues on the cloud, we can look at them from two different perspectives: internal and external.
Malwares focusing on data breach or data loss, Denial of Service (DoS), Natural disasters and even physical security issues are major external treats. (And if you think that you have already seen everything, think again. On April 9, a man was arrested in Texas for trying to blow up an Amazon data center.)
The global pandemic has been another relevant issue: while many companies have rushed during lockdown to implement their cloud solutions, work from anywhere (WFA) have also expanded the risks. Last year, there was an increase of 485% in ransomware attacks, comparing with 2019, according to Bitdefender.
Still, according to Cyber Security Intelligence, the largest treat continues to be internal: 22.90% of all data breaches are caused by human error. Misconfiguration of a single application could be tied to multiple business processes, affecting vendors, balance sheets, and regulatory compliance. Infrastructure as Code (IaC) can be used to not only to prevent misconfiguration at deployment time but also to continually verify that infrastructure hasn’t drifted from its original state, modified by either internal or external actors.
For this reason, it is so relevant to careful prepare initial landing zones, identify, plan and design the right cloud infrastructure, platform or service based on each company’s reality, always being careful not to be blindsided by cloud’s simplicity concept. Not everyone knows how or have the right tools to rooted out solution errors. Many vendors are still not prepared for new cloud-based threats, what will incur into fines and penalties for failing to adequately prepare for new compliance considerations.
The selection of the right partner comes around and defines the success of the project implementation. Only players with proven expertise, with relevant industry certifications, and the right teams and solutions can offer “peace of mind” during the whole migration process, allowing companies to save money, time and, most relevant of all, reputation.
The subject has risen so much in importance, that recently President Biden has named two former National Security Agency veterans to senior government cybersecurity positions, including the first national cyber director. The White House asked Congress for $110 million in new funding for next year to help Homeland Security improve its defenses and hire more cybersecurity talent.
What about you? Are you treating your cloud-based projects with the same care?
