For many years, companies have been chasing innovation through cloud platforms, going beyond the limitations of legacy technology in order to increase speed and agility, and increase their competitiveness.
However, all companies often face challenges that complicate the process of moving to the cloud, resulting in higher costs and timelines while exposing the company to data security risks. Ultimately, these challenges prevent companies from experiencing the true benefits of cloud integration and, in some cases, lead to significant violations and regulatory fines.
Building cloud security solutions: Measure twice, cut once
Cloud migration speed is commonly hampered by data security concerns, budget overruns, fragmented applications, and operational friction. These challenges—affecting the three key stakeholders within a cloud migration strategy of data and analytics leaders, security leaders, and IT leaders—often cause projects to run beyond planned timelines and budgets. In many cases, these migrations fail to deliver value because data use is restricted by inadequate security, and extended timelines erode the company's first-mover advantage.
To overcome security challenges and protect cloud databases, teams often adopt a DIY security approach. However, this is not as practical or scalable a solution as it seems. Cloud projects have a reputation for escalating in scope, just like their namesake projects that are constantly expanding – often extending beyond what their original vision teams envisioned. As the size of a migration project rapidly grows, teams are faced with a number of required security solutions and soon realize that they are investing time and resources into building custom cloud security solutions rather than moving forward with the cloud migration itself.
To mitigate these issues, data security should be the foundation of every cloud migration project. Security cannot be treated as an afterthought or applied only to certain parts of the migration process: instead, it must be standardized and consistent across the entire organization. When companies prioritize security from the beginning, they eliminate risk and operational friction, creating a secure and fast path to competitive advantage in the cloud. Starting the cloud migration journey with a data security foundation also enables teams to be more considered and methodical in their approach; Adopt a measure twice, cut once mentality. Furthermore, data security allows businesses to move data seamlessly across platforms, leverage any cloud, and develop cloud-native applications, all while maintaining speed, agility, and trust.
Navigating safety obstacles
One of the main obstacles that companies face is the increasing complexity of regulatory environments. In particular, with the entry into force of the DORA regime in January 2025, companies operating in the EU must meet new standards for technological risk management. This regulation requires companies to demonstrate their ability to prevent, manage and recover from cyberattacks and other operational disruptions. Failure to comply will likely result in significant fines and reputational damage. Given this, companies should not assume that cloud providers' basic security tools will be sufficient to effectively secure their sensitive data and meet regulatory audit requirements. Tools like encryption, identity and access management (IAM), and monitoring/logging provide a foundation, but are not comprehensive solutions. Unfortunately, over-reliance on these tools can lead to compliance gaps and increased vulnerability.
To meet DORA requirements and future regulations, business leaders must adopt a proactive and reflective approach to cybersecurity. Strong cyber hygiene practices should be integrated across the business, ensuring consistency in how data is handled, protected and accessed. It is important to note at this point that enhanced data security is not solely focused on compliance. Modern IT researchers and business analysts have studied what defines the most innovative companies for decades and have identified two key principles that help companies achieve this: unified control and unified protection. Unified control establishes a central policy that governs all data security measures, ensuring consistency and compliance across all platforms. Unified Protection enforces these centralized policies across decentralized environments, allowing flexibility while maintaining strong security.
This clearly demonstrates that data security and comprehensive governance allow companies to grow and innovate with confidence: allowing them to take calculated risks with data security and compliance already in mind. By using unified control and unified protection, teams avoid reinventing cybersecurity policies for each cloud migration project and instead focus their attention on delivering the project quickly and efficiently.
Evolution(r)of data security
Advances in data security technologies are reshaping the cloud landscape, enabling faster and more secure migrations. Privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) such as dynamic data masking (DDM) and format-preserving tokenization and encryption help companies anonymize sensitive data, reducing the risk of compromise while keeping cloud adoption fast and resilient. However, as companies will inevitably adopt multi-cloud strategies to support their operations, they will need interoperable security platforms that can integrate seamlessly across multiple cloud environments. These platforms will not only enable faster and more secure migrations, but will also allow businesses to achieve a rapid return on investment (ROI) that would otherwise be hampered by increasingly complex challenges. Ultimately, those who stay ahead of regulatory trends, while leveraging cutting-edge data security platforms, will be best positioned to thrive in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.
Data security enables companies to unleash the full potential of their valuable data. For data and security leaders curious about how their organizations and cloud projects can benefit from data security, Protegrity, a leading data protection platform provider, is hosting a roundtable event titled “The Next Frontier: How Data Security Will Shape the Future of Cloud Adoption.” The session will address the data security challenges faced when moving to the cloud, navigating regulatory environments while maximizing value, and what data security trends companies should anticipate to stay ahead of the curve.
About the author
Paul Hosack is a Solutions Architect at Protegrity. Protegrity protects the world's most sensitive data wherever it resides. Our industry-leading solutions allow companies to finally capture the value of their data and accelerate digital transformation timelines – without compromising individuals' fundamental right to privacy. For more than 20 years, Protegrity has provided innovative, data-focused protection for the most sensitive data for the biggest brands on the planet. We free companies from the constraints associated with accessing and leveraging data to create better customer experiences, make intelligence-powered decisions, and drive innovation. Data knows no borders, and Protegrity technology is designed for data to be ubiquitous. Protegrity is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.
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