The cloud has come a long way since its inception. In its early days, the cloud was seen to save money and increase efficiency.
According to Contino’s 2020 public cloud report, the cloud was recognized as a way to drive innovation through new technologies and services. 81% of respondents from the survey across the whole of APAC, USA, and Europe declared that using the cloud increased their innovation and cost-effectiveness, with only 5% stating they found it to be more expensive than on-premises.
Moreover, it is still seen as a strategic imperative for businesses of all sizes. However, many organizations are hesitant to adopt the cloud due to security and compliance concerns.
Public State of Cloud Enterprise Use
The public cloud service market is expected to reach $947.3 billion by 2026 worldwide which is a significant increase from the $445.3 billion that was set in 2021, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.3% throughout the forecasted period.
This means that most businesses are moving to or have already moved to the cloud for various operations, especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic which has seen a rise in remote working initiatives emphasizing the requirement for companies to have somewhere where they can store and access important data in one location that can be accessed anywhere.
Additionally, 85% of enterprise workloads will be in the cloud infrastructure by 2025. This number will only grow as more businesses move their operations to the cloud. Milind Govegkar, distinguished vice president at Gartner, said “Adopting cloud-native platforms means that the digital or product teams will use architectural principles to take advantage of the inherent capabilities within the cloud environment.
New workloads deployed in a cloud-native environment will be pervasive, not just popular and anything noncloud will be considered legacy.”
The State of Cloud Security and Compliance
Cloud compliance is the idea that cloud-delivered technologies must meet the requirements that their customers require. Cloud compliance ensures that cloud computing services satisfy regulatory standards.
The state of cloud security and compliance is constantly changing as new technologies emerge or become obsolete. Businesses need to be constantly adapting and evolving to stay competitive, and the cloud is a perfect platform for this.
However, there are still some concerns that businesses have when it comes to moving their operations to the cloud. The most popular cloud security concerns are:
- Data loss or theft
- Complying with regulations such as HIPAA and GDPR
- Compliance standards like FedRAMP, FISMA, etc. require that companies ensure the confidentiality of their data at rest and in transit across all levels of the cloud infrastructure
- Vulnerability to hacking
Cloud service providers have made significant investments to ensure that their platforms are secure and compliant. They have also put in place several measures to help businesses with compliance, such as certifications, audits, and security features.
However, there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to cloud security and compliance. Businesses need to carefully select the right platform for their needs and make sure that they are compliant with all applicable regulations.
In addition, businesses need to have a centralized team to ensure that all aspects of the business are transitioned properly to the cloud and that security and compliance concerns are addressed.
This is especially important for larger businesses that are storing more data in the cloud. As the number of businesses moving to the cloud continues to rise, so too will the need for more advanced security features and compliance requirements.
Conclusion
Cloud computing is becoming increasingly popular as more businesses move to the cloud to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
However, there are security concerns that many businesses have when it comes to moving their operations onto a third-party platform such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure.
Having a centralized team will help with making sure that all aspects of the business are transitioned properly to the cloud and that security and compliance concerns are addressed.