Weekly CloudNews: Getting a Handle on the Cloud Security Landscape

Welcome to this week’s edition of CloudBolt’s Weekly CloudNews!

Understanding the landscape of cloud security

Chris Deverill, TechRadar Pro, July 21, 2021

“The benefits of cloud-based working are not in doubt, with its flexibility, low upfront investment, and suitability for remote working, and it looks like more than half of UK-based IT will be in the cloud by 2023, with 75% of companies having already switched to a ‘cloud-first’ strategy. Cloud-based working is clearly here to stay, but with the upsides comes a new environment, but this also carries a number of risks. Cloud is the new playground for criminals.

Moving operations to the cloud does not mean offloading responsibility for security procedures, and multi-cloud implementations add extra complications. Each cloud environment has its own technical and configuration approaches, and IT departments need to navigate the organization, management, control and visibility of services on each host. Every organization remains responsible for its own data, and cloud providers require implementation of their management and security policies in order for their clients to be compliant with regulations.’

An introduction to big data in the cloud

Stephen J. Bigelow, TechTarget, July 19, 2021

“While there is benefit to big data, the sheer amount of computing resources and software services needed to support big data efforts can strain the financial and intellectual capital of even the largest businesses. The cloud has made great strides in filling the need for big data. It can provide almost limitless computing resources and services that make big data initiatives possible for any business.

The public cloud has emerged as an ideal platform for big data. A cloud has the resources and services that a business can use on demand, and the business doesn’t have to build, own or maintain the infrastructure. Thus, the cloud makes big data technologies accessible and affordable to almost any size of enterprise.”

Three ways customers will dictate the future of the cloud

Ed Anderson, SiliconAngle, July 18, 2021

“Gartner expects that cloud will not only be a technological approach for delivering infrastructure and applications, but will also serve as the key driver of information technology modernization and business innovation when and where the customer requires it.

The 2021 Gartner CIO Survey found that 52% of survey respondents characterized a more strategic rather than tactical focus of IT investment as a result of COVID-19. When asked about expectations for 2021, an even greater 71% of respondents expected an increase in the strategic focus of IT investments. Cloud services served as the bright spot throughout the entirety of the pandemic, as the organizations employing them have been able to recover more effectively and quickly from those who are not. The adaptive nature of a cloud-based approach will drive cloud spending through the next few years and make it a core aspect of business continuity. We also know that cloud services support IT modernization strategies: In Gartner’s 2020 Cloud End-User Buying Behavior Study, nearly half of respondents identified IT modernization as one of the top three outcomes achieved by adopting cloud given its elasticity, reliability, scalability and more. Although organizations can, and should, recognize both tactical (such as IT performance and cost efficiency) and strategic benefits (such as revenue growth and new customer acquisition) of using cloud, the focus must be to ensure that customers recognize a measurable outcome from their cloud investments.”

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