Cloud storage has revolutionized the data game.
A managed service can offer a range of benefits to organizations, including helping them save costs, improving data accessibility and providing robust backup and recovery options should the company need them.
However, with all the opportunities they provide, cloud environments are becoming more complex, which can cause increasing challenges for businesses – especially in highly regulated industries. Storing sensitive information in the cloud can make it a target for data breaches and malicious activity by threat actors. This can lead to unauthorized access and data theft, as well as privacy concerns for the public.
To mitigate these issues, it is crucial for companies to ensure that their security measures are strong. With insights from KPMG, IBM, Kyndryl, and Persistent Systems, we examine how today's cybersecurity landscape is evolving in line with cloud storage developments.
In this feature, executives offer advice on what businesses will need to consider moving forward and how they can leverage cloud storage to remain digitally resilient, while protecting their customers' data.
Adapting to the changing security landscape
The cloud landscape continues to change and become more complex, with legacy systems unable to cope with today's new threat environments. As AI adoption continues to rise and data becomes a key component of enterprise success, data security is becoming a greater concern for businesses.
In response, the security landscape is evolving alongside these cloud storage concerns, as organizations move to protect the data of their workforce and customers. As Nataraj Nagaratnam, global executive director of cloud technology at IBM, explains, concerns such as data theft currently represent a major threat to cloud security.
“Effectively addressing and preventing data theft requires a strategy centered around security, compliance and resilience,” he says. “Cloud providers have a responsibility to not only monitor the threat landscape but also provide their customers with the technology needed to protect the data they entrust.”
In order to confront cyber threats, companies must evolve to embrace new cloud technologies. Often, legacy infrastructure lacks advanced security features to keep up with new digital threats, which can make it difficult for businesses to detect and respond to cyber threats.
Ben Scowen, vice president of UK&I Cloud and core leader at Kyndryl, points out that companies must evolve to embrace new cloud-based technologies – which includes changing security standards. Often times, organizations continue to face challenges when it comes to implementing robust cloud security measures.
“The cybersecurity landscape has expanded dramatically to accommodate evolving IT environments,” he explains. “Although organizations have invested in in-depth, multi-layered security point solutions, a siled approach makes it difficult to deal with the increasing sophistication and frequency of cyberattacks.
“Security leaders need to shift from the current siled security approach to the new Zero Trust architecture, an integrated framework supported by governance across five elements: identity, device, network, applications and data.”
With a strong framework, the cloud can help strengthen a company's security posture. In order to protect sensitive information, companies will benefit from looking for reputable cloud providers with strong security measures, as well as developing a clear cloud security strategy that includes employee training and regular audits.
“Protecting data integrity and protecting against cyber threats is more important than ever,” says Parath Narayanan, Global Head of BFSI and Geo-Head of Europe at Persistent Systems. “By integrating security from the beginning, organizations not only enhance their resilience to cyber threats, but also simplify compliance with regulatory frameworks.”
In order to protect valuable data assets, it is necessary to monitor the cloud to detect vulnerabilities and unusual activity.
“Continuous monitoring alongside adapting existing operational processes or introducing new ones is crucial,” commented Adrian Bradley, Head of Cloud Transformation at KPMG.
