Cloud Security Must Be Enforced At Modern Enterprises

By Author: Lauren Ellis
Total Articles: 35
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In this past decade, the cloud computing market has been growing at an unprecedented, breakneck pace. Cloud computing is now considered as one of the fastest growing industries, especially in the subsection of information technology. More and more companies are adopting the cloud because of its quick accessibility to top enterprise applications, and increase mobility at lower costs.

According to a recent study by Forrester Research, the public cloud market is expected to reach US$191 billion by 2020, up from US$58 billion in 2013. Forrester also predicts that cloud applications will probably top this growth, and predicts that they will reach US$133 billion in 2020. Forrester also foresees that cloud platforms will produce US$44 billion and cloud business services will touch US$14 billion.

However, as the cloud industry continues to expand, more security concerns in the cloud must be addressed. Recently security researchers have found that Cloud Security has several concerns that enterprises must prepare for. This is mainly due to the fact that the cloud services that ...
... employees often choose to use are not the most enterprise-secure options on the market.

“It’s crucial that a vendor persuade a company’s information technology and compliance teams about the security levels of cloud platforms, to overcome the any hesitations about Cloud Security”, states Corewall security analyst Jeffery Adams. Therefore, its important that highly confidential information is securely stored in the cloud by employing further advanced security methods.

One of the most prevalent strategies leveraged by information technology teams nowadays is data encryption. Data encryption is engineered to conceal the actual values of your highly sensitive information. Therefore, if encrypted data is intercepted or stolen by cybercriminals or hackers, they would not be able to access the true values of the data, without the encryption key. Cloud encryption is important for maintaining secure data in the cloud. Many methods exist for cloud encryption, as to whether companies encrypt in the cloud, or encryption before data arrives at the cloud service.

Another prevalent technology for cloud security is data loss prevention. Data loss prevention guarantees that precise data is not transferred to the cloud in a comprehensible format. Data Loss Prevention is particularly helpful in securing highly sensitive information, such as individual patient medical information, or credit card numbers. In addition, given the drastic increase in mobile computing in both - the enterprise and consumer realm nowadays, application security is a hot topic now. A large mistake organizations nowadays can make is by using an unsecured application and deploying it to ones cloud infrastructure without proper due diligence on its security platforms. Furthermore, cloud authentication and authorization are two other important issues that should be addressed early on. By prioritizing these topics, it will help in creating a secure & reliable approach in a cloud environment.

According to RPS research analyst, Ron Thornton, “the more valuable a subsection of data is, the more cloud service providers are needed to protect it.” This is an approach that many of the world’s largest enterprises have taken. Thornton states “Companies nowadays must strategize Cloud Security via well-planned implementation methods that span both product security and employee education.”

In summary, cloud providers and enterprises must work together to achieve high levels of cloud security. Data security in the cloud should be of highest priority, and shouldn’t be neglected. With the rise in cybercriminals and hackers, its important for enterprises to strategize a comprehensive security plan, so they can continue leveraging the cloud to improve their accessibility, mobility and efficiency as a business.

Author :
Lauren Ellis is a research analyst covering the technology industry’s top trends & topics, focusing on Cloud Security, Cloud Computing, Data Loss Prevention etc.,