More and more businesses are shifting to the cloud in the recent years. There are now 41 percent of organisations using cloud services, up from 25 percent before the outbreak. In addition, 21% of companies expect to move 80-100 percent of their workload to the cloud by 2022. This shift in focus has an impact on spending. Almost all respondents to a Gartner survey believe that cloud computing investment will remain stable or perhaps rise in the coming year. In 2022, investment in public cloud infrastructure will overtake investment in on-premises infrastructure for the first time. The cloud has prevailed and is currently gaining momentum.

The Security of the Cloud is Increasing

Cloud adoption was hampered in past years by security and privacy/confidentiality issues, respectively, cited by 64% of respondents. Seventy-three percent of companies said security concerns were holding down cloud projects, according to a separate poll by the Cloud Security Alliance. Cloud security is today more powerful and more trustworthy than it has ever been, despite the fact that specific significant security vulnerabilities need to be solved. The following are only a few of the root causes:

• Security is regularly monitored and tested by cloud service providers. Most small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are unable to provide this level of scrutiny. Instead of relying on a single layer of protection, such as a firewall, cloud systems use several, including artificial intelligence and machine learning.
• Most cloud services offer security safeguards like role-based authentication and the ability to shut down entire systems if a hazard is recognised, so stolen or compromised data can be remotely destroyed.
• Insider attacks can be mitigated with the use of cloud storage. There has been a 31% increase in the global cost of insider threats between 2018 and 2020, with a 47% increase in the number of incidents.
• Using cloud storage protects data against hardware failure or damage. SMBs who make use of cloud services recover four times as quickly as those that do not.

Is Cloud Security Going to Change?

Compared to typical on-premise security, cloud security is far more robust. However, in order to make the experience safe and profitable rather than risky and costly, various impediments must be identified and overcome. The following are four major cloud security issues for 2022, as well as possible solutions:

1. Preventing Data Breach

Preventing data leaks is and will continue to be the most important concern when it comes to cloud security. Accordingly,

• Throughout the lifecycle of a deployed application or system, do a thorough investigation.
• Enforce access policies by identifying users, assigning privileges, and enforcing policies.
• Access critical data in the event of an outage.
• Prevent accidentally releasing data that has been wiped.
• Cloud-based systems and apps should be monitored and defended.
• Analyze any security incidents and respond to them with the help of cloud service providers while keeping staying compliant.

2. Complying with regulations

Moving workloads to the cloud, according to some companies, frees them from any legal responsibilities. When in fact, this is not true, Data and apps must still be protected in accordance with current standards by organisations (e.g. GDPR, PCI-DSS, CCPA, etc.). A Extreme Compute, these certifications also include SOC 2 and ISO/IEC 27001. Data is protected at rest and in transit using an enterprise-grade security model, and we adhere to a tight set of safe software development processes.

3. Deficiency of Internal Knowledge

According to the Cloud Security Alliance’s Cloud Adoption Practices & Priorities study, this is because they lack in-house IT expertise. And it’s only going to get worse in the years to come. There is a dearth of qualified, skilled people to support this new trend in advanced cloud and security capabilities. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) face a difficult challenge when it comes to attracting and retaining top employees. Filling in the skills gap can be both cost-effective and sensible when done in conjunction with a Managed Service Provider (MSP).

4. Migration to the Cloud: A Problematic Process

Security-related cloud migration concerns include too fast a move, misconfigurations, and API vulnerabilities. CEOs, in particular, are understandably eager to get everything on the cloud ASAP. When migrating data and apps from one platform to another for business purposes, organisations must be cautious. You should never try to do everything at once. Staged migration decreases the risk of catastrophic failures, such as data loss or security breaches, that could otherwise occur. To catch problems early and take action, organisations should keep detailed records and generate regular reports on their activities. When migrating to a new network, it’s possible to set up access controls and permissions before the network has grown. Before a migration, all resources, assets, and settings must be thoroughly inspected for any potential problems. Over 150,000 documents, including passports and driver’s licences, were exposed in a FedEx data breach in 2018. FedEx acquired the source company before the storage bucket that triggered the breach was discovered. In other words, the risk that FedEx inherited went unnoticed for years before it was exploited by the company. Data breaches at Venmo (200 million records grabbed), Facebook (6.6 million users and 1500 apps compromised), US Postal Service (60 million records scraped), and JustDial (133,000 organisations exposed) have all been related to insecure APIs (exposing data points for 100 million users). There must be an assurance that cloud service providers have APIs that are constantly patched to keep them safe. As well as the core or flagship solutions, this must also apply to companion tools and add-ons. All of these considerations are critical, but we believe most companies place a higher value on having on-hand cloud workers who are both qualified and experienced. These companies are able to do so if they have the proper abilities: Virtual machine installations, on the other hand, are open systems that may be accessed via the internet. It’s vital to work with cloud security experts rather than merely IT staff. In contrast to typical IT specialists, cloud security experts have access to better technologies and training, as well as strategic guidance, which helps firms maximise earnings while avoiding risks.

To Conclude:

The cloud is becoming more popular with growing businesses. The global cloud computing market is estimated to reach $623 billion in 2023, growing at a CAGR of 7 percent. There are both advantages and disadvantages to this but finding and tackling security issues would assure a profitable and safe future.