Caspar Herzberg |
This article was originally published in the Winter 2018 issue of The Record. Subscribe for FREE here to get the next issue delivered directly to your inbox.
The cloud has quickly become a key component for businesses the world over – and for good reason. Worldwide adoption has radically changed the way we communicate, ushering in a new, unrivalled age of human collaboration. Public cloud offerings, such as Microsoft Azure, have only strengthened this, offering immediate, scalable cloud storage solutions with a range of accessible payment options.
While these benefits can’t be argued with, the widespread adoption of the cloud hasn’t come without its obstacles. Today’s new workforce has turned the edge of the enterprise on its head, transforming it into a constant, undefined flux. Equipped with laptops, tablets and mobile devices, workers are creating an unprecedented flow of data that simply cannot be controlled by security architectures built for on-premises demands, leaving CIOs around the world dazed and confused.
So why exactly is this happening? While legacy architecture is certainly part of the problem, another, more pressing concern appears to be a lack of education when it comes to cloud protocol and security.
Our recent research found that over half (57%) of respondents believed their on-premises security was superior to anything cloud security could offer. Trust is an issue too. A staggering 82% of respondents to our survey admitted to having concerns when it came to deploying firewalls in the cloud, citing inappropriate pricing and licensing (41%) and a lack of centralised management creating a significant overhead (39%) as their primary concerns. Other responses raised concerns around next generation firewalls simply not being practical for cloud environments.
One comforting discovery was that almost three quarters (71%) of respondents were aware of the shared security model, understanding their responsibility, as well as that of Microsoft Azure and other vendors, when it came to cloud security. That being said, it still leaves 19% holding the dangerous belief that cloud vendors are solely responsible for their cloud security.
It’s clear to see that there are still many question marks when it comes to how businesses should approach cloud security, be it a lack of trust in cloud security, an abundance of misplaced trust in traditional on-premises security, or both.
As the cloud becomes ever more pervasive, CIOs and IT teams still relying on traditional data centre architectures need to wake up and smell the coffee. Ignorance is no longer good enough, and will be the costly undoing of anyone who doesn’t learn where their responsibilities lie.
Chris Hill is regional vice president of Public Cloud at Barracuda Networks