The introduction of the public cloud in 2006 signaled a paradigm shift in not only computing but also in how business is conducted globally. The cloud opened the door to levels of agility, reliability, scalability, and speed that were previously unthinkable by allowing enterprises to acquire services at the precise time and scale they require them.
Today, 92 percent of contemporary businesses seek to go to the cloud in order to support their efforts in digital transformation. In fact, to meet heightened performance demands, many major enterprises (82%) operate in hybrid cloud systems that combine on-premises, public, and private cloud services. For the majority of enterprises to survive in the modern world, this change is mission-critical because it offers previously unheard-of scalability, power, and resources.
However, this transformation is taking place against the backdrop of a more hazardous threat environment, with recent assaults on businesses like Marriott, Cisco, and Toyota. The ability of enterprises to expand their cloud projects is ultimately constrained by the impending risks, rising costs, and increasing complexity of security measures.
Hybrid cloud landscapes are far more complex than on-prem ones, despite being vital in this digital age, and working with various cloud providers makes it tough to see security concerns, spot performance bottlenecks, or troubleshoot fixes. It's time for enterprises to change how they handle cloud migration if they want to achieve the truly revolutionary potential of the cloud since 76% of IT professionals claim to have reached a wall with the cloud.
Here are three actions that businesses could take to reduce risks and utilize the cloud's potential for improved business results:
Reduce the void in cloud visibility
Cloud migration is essential for operational success in today's digital-first environment. Even though 82% of major enterprises use hybrid cloud systems now, this percentage is only projected to rise, adding to the complexity and raising the danger of a security breach.
However, there is a method for businesses to use this paradigm to their advantage. They will have to close the visibility gap, which experts recently regarded as the most crucial cloud security factor, in order to do this. Deep observability, which provides IT staff with network-level intelligence in real-time to proactively mitigate security and compliance risk, provide a superior user experience, and reduce the operational complexity of managing hybrid and multi-cloud IT infrastructures, is the only way to achieve this.
In-depth application visibility that catches known and undiscovered dangers identifies bottlenecks, and provides consistent, high-quality digital experiences will be available to enterprises if this is done appropriately.
Employ real-time network metadata
The average weekly number of cyberattacks has reached an all-time high of 925, up by almost 50% in 2021. Furthermore, compared to Q1 of this year, ransomware attacks increased by 24% in Q2. It goes without saying that security teams are under pressure to cooperate in order to keep one step ahead of these knowledgeable threat actors.
Security teams are being overrun with threats and data at a faster rate than they can even handle as a result of the rising number of adversaries. More than 500 public cloud security alerts are received daily by security professionals on average, and 38% receive more than 1,000.
To mitigate the dangerous threat landscape and the overwhelming number of alerts, threat analysts need access to real-time data in order to make crucial, well-informed business decisions and proactively protect the enterprise. In fact, real-time metadata is required under a recently proposed law in order to make prompt business decisions. The advantages of having access to this information are starting to dawn on the government, and experts predict that more institutions will follow suit.
Increase employee capacity
The business can increase operational agility to make sure its efforts are coordinated and fruitful once it has narrowed the visibility gap and started turning raw data into actionable data.
Approximately 70% of security operation center (SOC) teams suffer burnout as a result of the high-pressure situations they operate in, indicating that morale and welfare among security team members are currently worse than average. Teams receive more warnings and information than they can possibly absorb, so it's crucial to make sure they are provided with the resources they require to support them rather than overwhelm them.
With little assistance, SOC teams are navigating through a challenging time for their sector. There are around 700,000 available cybersecurity positions in the United States alone. To prevent burnout and keep talent, organizations must give top priority to filling these gaps and caring for the staff they already have. While real-time metadata and deep observability are essential tools, the efforts would be limited without a strong, well-versed staff of security experts.
Conclusion
The recent advancement and widespread use of the cloud have been thrilling to observe. Nevertheless, despite its vast powers, businesses face a number of risks and difficulties. The three actions listed above will enable IT teams, who are currently overburdened by the cloud, to move from a reactive to a proactive security and compliance posture, lowering risk.
