Many corporate leaders are hesitant to move to the cloud because of security concerns. netlogx’s Clayton Calvert explains that while data breaches are continuing apace, cloud security is entirely possible and manageable.
Cloud adoption has continued to grow in the last decade, and recent reports by the analyst firm Gartner show it will continue to grow by almost 20 percent next year. Gartner’s Vice President of Research, Sid Nag, says that the firm doesn’t know of any vendor or service provider whose revenue hasn’t benefited from the adoption of cloud-first strategies in the organization. By 2022, the analyst firm estimates cloud service growth will triple.
The benefits for employee satisfaction as a result of using cloud services and online collaboration tools cannot be ignored. Study after study shows incredible ROI in productivity, engagement and efficiency from using tools that enable employees to work from nearly any device with an internet connection. However, many corporate leaders are hesitant to make the jump because of security concerns, especially leaders in the health care, finance and government sectors. While data breaches seem to be more commonplace than ever, the truth is that cloud security is entirely possible and manageable with a couple of important steps to increase corporate confidence when it comes to cloud adoption.
Integrated Security Provides Added Layers of Protection
When an organization’s IT team is seeking new technology vendors, it is wise to look for cloud services that have integrated security solutions to give organizations the capability to manage layers of security. When IT teams consider questions about levels of access and how data is retrieved, platforms that enable intrusion detection, device recognition, network access and other types of layered security will win out over platforms that don’t incorporate these features. Not only will this make IT teams feel more comfortable about moving to the cloud, but it also makes secure deployments easier and less complicated for a fast-growing organization.
Have a Defined and Enforced Policy on Data Deletion
Too often, businesses aren’t aware what data is accessible and how much of it there is. This can create vulnerabilities that corporate leaders and IT teams don’t know exist. When moving to the cloud, it is important to create a policy in advance that dictates when and how data should be deleted. Frequently, data that is no longer relevant, useful or accurate will stay on a cloud server simply because no one bothered to remove it. A plan about what to do with this data should include clear ownership of each task and a time frame for completion. Housekeeping tasks like this not only reduce vulnerabilities, but also ensure that a business’s data is organized and accurate for employees who need access to it.
Employee Education About Third-Party Cloud Services
The market rewards corporate innovation, even as that innovation surpasses data regulations. But innovation can mean employees decide to use third-party cloud services they shouldn’t. It’s more important than ever to manage employee education about security risks like shadow IT and social engineering hacks. More often than not, poor policies and procedures leave employees unsure about what they can and cannot do with data available to them. This is particularly true when employees haven’t been educated on best practices to govern and secure data. Empowering employees to make careful judgments as they work will inevitably protect the company as a whole.
Organizations that use cloud-first adoption benefit from the years of experience that vendors have spent building database maintenance procedures and security protocols on their own servers. While initially it may be difficult to convince corporate leaders to use the cloud, studies show that in addition to a significant cost savings, IT teams spend less time addressing maintenance and server updates and more time on strategic technology decisions when a cloud-first decision is implemented. A concrete, well-managed plan about data deletion, layers of security for the data that is available and employee education about using unapproved third-party services will ensure corporate teams feel confident that the benefits of cloud servers outweigh any pitfalls.
Clayton Calvert is an Information Security and Risk Management Consultant with 
