Answering the Cloud Security Questions
The cloud is becoming a more mainstream phenomenon, with organisations all across the Middle East and Africa questioning whether they should be moving their businesses to the cloud.
The fourth industrial revolution will be spearheaded primarily by the cloud and cloud-based technologies. As businesses grow, they have more data to store – and why pay for larger IT servers when you can pay only for the amount you need on the cloud? In fact, 47 percent of global respondents to a Securonix report said they’re switching to the cloud to benefit from the cost savings.
Similarly, workforces are changing, and employees are demanding more flexibility. The cloud offers this, because all information is stored on the internet and can therefore be accessed anywhere, at any time, using any device. The ubiquity of cloud services, combined with the increasing affordability of internet-enabled smart devices, fuels operational flexibility, facilitating anytime, anywhere working. By saving businesses cost and time, cloud technologies bolster productivity and empower employees to achieve more.
Now that we’ve established that moving your business to the cloud is a good idea, the next question is often: ‘but if all of my confidential data is stored somewhere in an intangible storage box, does that make it more susceptible to cyber theft?’
The answer is no. Here is why:
Your data is more – not less – secure
Organisations previously cautious of moving to the cloud are reconsidering as cloud services like Microsoft Azure offer advanced protection and privacy of data that far outweigh traditional IT security solutions.
Unlike the internet in general, the cloud was built from the ground up with modern security and privacy in mind. It’s effectively a controlled ecosystem protected by people who spend all day thinking about data security and privacy.
And with tools like the intelligent security graph – which uses AI and machine learning to analyse and stop threats - the cloud benefits from a sort of group immunity: Any time Microsoft detects a security threat to Azure, Office 365 or another service running on that cloud platform, every other service on that platform gets the benefit of that knowledge.
Azure also offers the Security Center, which provides a comprehensive view into your organisation’s IT security posture with built-in search queries for notable issues that require your attention. A Security and Audit dashboard is also available and serves as the home screen for everything related to security in Cloud. It provides high-level insight into the security state of your computers and includes the ability to view all events from the past 24 hours, seven days, or any other custom period. It also can interact with 3rd party security solutions so that you can manage your organization’s security all up…
Take pharmaceutical company Merck for example. The corporation was looking to protect highly sensitive intellectual property while encouraging collaboration across the company’s ever-more geographically dispersed operations. In its quest for greater enterprise agility, the company combined the services of Azure Active Directory Premium and Office 365 deploying Windows 10 to its more than 80,000 associates who work across 400 locations in 78 countries. In doing so, they were able to improve collaboration among their 50,000 employees while protecting its wealth of sensitive information.
The cloud is the future of computing. Established technology partners like Microsoft are investing billions each year to ensure it offers organisations the security they expect, together with the functionality they need to succeed in the digital age. I’ll discuss more on cloud security in future articles.
Mehmet