An array of organizations have started to move to the cloud. But what falls short of their migration journey is the consideration of security within the cloud. Many organizations brush aside security and focus on other areas when it comes to migration and their presence on the cloud. But cloud computing security services become one of the most important nuances to avail for a cloud migration journey – and why is it so, let’s explore in this article.

The Need for Cloud Security

Security becomes pivotal in each and every aspect – cloud being one of the most crucial areas. Needless to state how important security is for the cloud – from the very inception of a migration journey to mitigating any and all security threats and vulnerabilities from an application, cloud security becomes a key component. An array of security risks loom over organizations who migrate to cloud – to name a few:

• Data breaches – An extremely common security threat, data breaches can happen anytime and anywhere. When on cloud, it becomes extremely crucial to be wary about any malicious cyber attacks that may hamper an organization’s applications or infrastructure on cloud. Organizations need to have a robust security posture by conforming to the given security compliances and regulatory frameworks.
• DoS or DDoS attacks – Denial-of-service or distributed denial-of-service attack weaken an organization’s security by disrupting the services and traffic by continuous attacks. When it comes to the cloud, DoS attacks can target the sensitive information stored publicly and bring down security patches such as WAF (Website Application Firewall), via disguise.
• Data loss – A very common facet, data loss becomes a critical risk that organizations need to mitigate against. Any cyberattack or malicious activity can result in data deletion, for which security patches become extremely imperative to maintain.
• Neglected due diligence and inadequate management – Apart from the coherent cyberattacks, organizations also face a threat with respect to their own preparedness for handling security risks. A robust mindset and readiness needs to come in within an organization’s processes and strategy for cloud migration and the ramifications thereof. Due diligence and cogent management are keys to achieving a robust security posture – as per given parameters, regulatory frameworks, operations, etc.

The need for cloud security and availing cloud computing security services goes beyond just the aforementioned risks and vulnerabilities. An end-to-end strategy and consideration needs to be made for implementing security. Some nuances that should be considered are –

• Security testing – End-to-end penetration and security testing services become imperative for applications and infrastructure on cloud. With the latest tools and technologies, as well as with the given standards such as OWASP Top 10, security testing becomes a wholesome solution to mitigate security vulnerabilities on the cloud.
• DevSecOps – As a niche within the DevOps model, DevSecOps paves a way for security to be seamlessly amalgamated within the cloud journey with a cohesive model of collaboration and expedience in deliverables.
• Cyber hygiene – Often turned a blind eye towards, cyber hygiene is an intrinsic part of cloud security which includes following certain best practices – CIS benchmarks, OSINT, multi-factor authentication, encryption, cyber hygiene assessment, etc.
• Disaster remediation – Implementing industry best practices for cloud security is a must, but often there still might be certain cyberattacks that are unanticipated. And once an attack is made, organizations also need to strategize for effective remediation and disaster recovery solutions.

With a set of best practices in place, cloud security can be easily achieved and maintained. But these practices are a shared responsibility of an organization as well as an individual. Individuals using the cloud services need to take into consideration the right practices for ensuring that their data does not get compromised. When it comes to public cloud services, including Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) or Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), organizations as well as customers need to ensure that their data is kept secure with effective security solutions – cloud computing security services automatically come into play, herein.

Thus, security is an extremely crucial attribute for any organization in their cloud journey – to make it a part of their process from the get-go and ensure that security patches are effectively placed in case of any cyberattack. Cloud applications and infrastructure become an easy target for malicious attackers, being publicly stored and available – a complete shift from an on-premise environment. Thus, it becomes crucial to have coherent cloud security measures and cloud computing security services in place for organizations to make the best and most secure use of it.