7 Steps to a Smooth, Secure Cloud Transition

The rapid rate of cloud adoption has put the spotlight on security as businesses try to control and secure data and applications. Employees are moving to the cloud regardless of what the security team says, and their habits aren't changing any time soon.

Cloud adoption has ramped up over the past five years, according to a new Cloud Threat Report released by Oracle and KPMG this week. The percentage of businesses using public cloud services went from 57% in 2013 to 85% in 2018. In 2013, only 21% of organizations said they used infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS). This year, that number hit 51% - a 143% increase.

This major shift is creating a new wave of cybersecurity challenges, says Akshay Bhargava, vice president of Oracle's cloud business group. Enterprise cloud users are realizing the complexity of threats to data in the cloud as new devices and identities access cloud environments.

"The biggest finding for us is just difficulty keeping pace at scale," he explains. "Many organizations are facing a challenge: their cloud adoption is growing significantly faster than their ability to secure their cloud footprint."

Ninety percent of survey respondents categorize at least half of their cloud-resident data as sensitive. It's worth noting that "sensitive" is a subjective term but generally, this information includes CRM data, personally identifiable info, payment card data, legal documents, source code, designs, and other types of intellectual property.

Despite the increasing trust in the cloud - 83% of respondents rate cloud security as good or better than on-prem security - companies often fail to take the right steps to ensure they're secure during the cloud transition. One of these is properly vetting a cloud service provider before doing business with them - a step that challenges many organizations.

Most (98%) of Oracle/KPMG's respondents conduct formal security reviews of public cloud service providers before doing business with them. However, only 47% conduct these assessments on their own and 52% use a third party. The challenge comes from a lack of industry standard benchmarking providers' security programs, which creates ambiguity.

If you're thinking with a cloud-first mindset, you should be making sure all the right boxes are checked before you make the leap. Here, security experts highlight the most important steps to keep in mind while moving to the cloud. Did they miss any? Feel free to add to our list.

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