Cloud computing has proven to deliver on its promised business outcomes, providing organizations with flexible capacity and scalability, increased agility, improved availability, and accelerated deployment and provisioning. However, security concerns continue to be a critical barrier to faster cloud adoption. A survey conducted by Cybersecurity Insiders and Fortinet revealed that 95% of organizations are concerned about their security posture in public cloud environments. The biggest cloud security risk identified by cybersecurity professionals is misconfiguration, followed by exfiltration of sensitive data, insecure interfaces/APIs, and unauthorized access. Additionally, organizations are looking for better visibility and control in securing hybrid and multi-cloud networks.
Despite these security concerns, the adoption of cloud services is still strong, with 39% of respondents having more than half of their workloads in the cloud, and 58% planning to reach this level in the next 12-18 months. This has led to the proliferation of multi-cloud environments, with 69% of organizations using two or more cloud providers. The top cloud providers prioritized by organizations are Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services, but future adoption is highest for Google Cloud Platform and Oracle Cloud.
Interestingly, security services are the top workload deployed in the cloud, followed by compute, storage, and applications. However, significant barriers to cloud adoption still exist, with the lack of qualified staff being the biggest challenge. Other barriers include legal and regulatory compliance, data security issues, and integration with existing IT environments.
Despite these barriers, organizations believe that cloud computing is delivering on its promises. The top business benefits identified by cloud users are flexibility and scale, agility, business continuity, and accelerated deployment and provisioning. Responsiveness to customer needs has become the top business outcome, surpassing accelerated time to market. Organizations that integrate cybersecurity into their move to the cloud are also seeing value in lower risk and improved security, as well as cost reductions.
However, cloud security concerns remain high, with 95% of organizations moderately to extremely concerned about their security posture in public cloud environments. The perception that the risk of a security breach in the public cloud is higher than in traditional on-premises environments is driving this concern. Cybersecurity professionals face challenges in protecting cloud workloads, including the lack of qualified security staff, compliance issues, and delivering consistent security policies in multi-cloud environments.
The top cloud security threats identified by cybersecurity professionals are misconfiguration, exfiltration of sensitive data, insecure interfaces/APIs, and unauthorized access. Preventing misconfiguration and securing applications that have already moved to the cloud are the top security priorities. The key drivers for cloud-based security include scalability, faster deployment, reduced effort in software patches and upgrades, and cost savings.
To address these challenges and concerns, organizations are looking for a single cloud security platform and dashboard that can provide consistent and comprehensive protection across their cloud footprint. This would help improve visibility and control and alleviate the lack of cyber talent.
The 2023 Cloud Security Report is based on a comprehensive survey of 752 cybersecurity professionals conducted in February 2023. The respondents represent a balanced cross-section of organizations of varying sizes across multiple industries.
Key points:
– Cloud computing delivers on its promised business outcomes, but security concerns remain a critical barrier to faster adoption.
– Misconfiguration is the biggest cloud security risk, followed by exfiltration of sensitive data, insecure interfaces/APIs, and unauthorized access.
– Organizations are looking for better visibility and control in securing hybrid and multi-cloud networks.
– 39% of respondents have more than half of their workloads in the cloud, and 58% plan to reach this level in the next 12-18 months.
– Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services are the top cloud providers, but future adoption is highest for Google Cloud Platform and Oracle Cloud.
– Security services are the top workload deployed in the cloud, followed by compute, storage, and applications.
– The lack of qualified staff is the biggest barrier to cloud adoption, followed by legal and regulatory compliance, data security issues, and integration with existing IT environments.
– Cloud computing delivers key business benefits, including flexibility and scale, agility, business continuity, and accelerated deployment and provisioning.
– Organizations believe that the cloud is delivering on its promises, with responsiveness to customer needs becoming the top business outcome.
– Cloud security concerns remain high, with 95% of organizations concerned about their security posture in public cloud environments.
– Misconfiguration, exfiltration of sensitive data, insecure interfaces/APIs, and unauthorized access are the top cloud security threats.
– Preventing misconfiguration and securing applications are the top security priorities.
– Scalability, faster deployment, reduced effort in software patches and upgrades, and cost savings are the key drivers for cloud-based security.
– Organizations are looking for a single cloud security platform and dashboard to improve visibility and control.