For many enterprises, moving business processes and data to the cloud has become a next step for improving both operational and technological capabilities. The cost savings and efficiencies created by utilizing cloud applications continue to increase, including opportunities for more business functions to be put on the cloud.
Even though the cloud continues to grow in popularity and respectability, complications with data privacy and data protection still cause alot of reluctance amongst most business leaders.
The Various Challenges of Cloud Security are:
Data Protection:
The main challenges of cloud security begin when enterprises need to keep full control of their data to ensure it’s kept private and protected. Whether it is outsourced data storage or the use of popular cloud SaaS applications, putting more data in the cloud inherently means more opportunity for unwanted or unauthorized access to that information. But cloud adoption by the enterprise is simply too compelling because of its business benefits, so enterprise Security and IT teams have to search for ways to secure their data in the cloud while permitting access and use by legitimate corporate users.
Data Availability:
Once data leaves an enterprise’s firewall, and migrates to the cloud, it often resides in the facilities of a cloud service provider located outside of an enterprise’s geographical location. With different regulations by industry and country, enterprises must be able to comply with the laws that apply to their data – a big challenge for international companies that need to adhere to specific data residency laws when their cloud providers reside in multiple foreign countries.
Contingency Planning:
With the cloud serving as a single centralized repository for a company’s mission-critical data, the risks of having that data compromised due to a data breach or temporarily made unavailable due to a natural disaster are real concerns. Much of the liability for the disruption of data in a cloud ultimately rests with the company whose mission-critical operations depend on that data, although liability can and should be negotiated in a contract with the services provider prior to commitment.
Companies need to know how their data is being secured and what measures the service provider will be taking to ensure the integrity and availability of that data should the unexpected occur. Additionally, companies should also have contingency plans in place in the event their cloud provider fails. Can the data be easily retrieved and migrated to a new service provider or to a non-cloud strategy if this happens?
User Authentication:
Data resting in the cloud needs to be accessible only by those authorized to do so, making it critical to both restrict and monitor who will be accessing the company’s data through the cloud. Identity management and provisioning platforms need to be in place to ensure that only authorized users can see the appropriate applications and data. This needs to be backed by compliance and audit and log management processes to have a record of who accesses the resources.
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