Cloud Security and Compliance Considerations for SMBs

Cloud offers multitude of benefits to any business, irrespective of its size. But, at the same time, there are concerns that need to be addressed too. Of the many challenges, security breach and non-compliance to standards could easily impact the efficiency, performance of the business, or even lead to regulatory fines or penalties. These challenges must be mitigated to provide a hassle-free business data accessibility from Cloud to your end users.

‘Forrester estimates that global cloud services revenues totaled $114 billion in 2016, up from $68 billion just two years ago that’s annual growth of 30%. And we see the public cloud services market reaching $236 billion by 2020. (sic)’

Even though moving your business data to the Cloud looks easy, it is extremely hard to identify whether the level of security provided in the Cloud/or by Cloud service provider is remarkably high compared to a non-Cloud environment.

Let’s take a deep dive into understanding what are the security concerns enveloping the Cloud and how they can influence the performance and bottom-line of your business.

Security concerns: Private vs. Public vs. Hybrid

Migrating to Private Cloud offers high security; however, it is more expensive. Moving your business data to Public and Hybrid Cloud is a wise move yet it can open up your business to security threats. Data migration from different platforms to the Cloud poses a huge challenge as it must comply with data migration regulations. So, certainly Cloud security and data compliance must be ensured when planning to move your business information to the Cloud.

Some of the top security threats every organization must focus on when moving your business data to the Cloud are:

• Data breaches
• Compromised credentials
• Broken authentication
• Hacked interfaces and APIs
• Exploited system vulnerabilities
• Account hijacking
• Malicious insiders
• Permanent data loss
• Inadequate diligence
• Cloud service abuses
• DoS attacks
• Shared technology; shared dangers
• Advanced persistent threats

Watch our free webinar on Securely Managing Media Access On The Cloud

Some of the compliance (regulatory & legal) requirements your business must focus on when moving your all-important business data to Cloud are the same as on-premise, but no less important:

• Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX)
• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
• Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI- DSS)
• Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)
• Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act & compliance
• SB-1386
• European Union Data Protection Directive

How to avoid Cloud data security and compliance issues and why choosing a right Cloud Service Provider (CSP) matters?

Cloud data security is a critical concern and only CSPs with years of real-time experience can do a much-better job of security than others.

• CSPs understand Cloud computing architectural framework before moving assets

Contacting expert CSPs will enable your business to utilize the Cloud platform to its fullest. Only a professional CSP can help your business by understanding what type of data, services, or processes will be moved to the Cloud and what kind of deployment services need to be leveraged for making the process seamless and threat-free. Your CSP partner will help you migrate the assets successfully after carefully evaluating the risks associated with them.

• CSPs help you with better data governance and enterprise risk management policies

A reliable CSP ensures that you have the policies and procedures created or updated before getting started with the Cloud program. They also ensure that security and compliance metrics are assessed perfectly for measuring data security management and its effectiveness when moving to the Cloud. They ensure the relevant details are added to contract before transferring your assets to the Cloud.

• CSPs approach application security meticulously

Expert Cloud service providers realize the significance of the app security when moving the app data to Cloud. A reliable CSP would identify the type of Cloud-services your business needs, who is your data controller, decide the level of information assurance your data requires, where to store the data etc. to eliminate data security breaches for rendering seamless data access to your end users.

Partnering with a smart and forward-thinking Cloud service provider will enable your business move enterprise data to the Cloud without any hassle. An experienced CSP will help your business with seamless access to information by making data accessible without any interruption of services.

Looking for a Cloud service provider with years of experience in migrating/managing enterprise data of your business? We are experts! We have already helped many startups, small, medium and large businesses with the advanced Cloud solutions enabling them to perform faster.