Cloud computing is now prevalent in almost everything that we do, with most organizations leveraging the cloud in one way or another. Businesses are now introducing a multi-cloud strategy in their process, harnessing multiple unique benefits of cloud service providers. It is imperative for IT decision-makers to ensure they have a robust strategy for integrating these solutions into their operations
The trend of multi-cloud has been at the top of the mind for IT decision-makers. According to Gartner, nearly 70% of organizations have a multi-cloud strategy in place. The key for organizations is to better understand what each cloud does for them and harness their benefits.
Key Security Challenges Posed to Organizations Adopting Multicloud Strategy
The adoption & implementation of multi-cloud initiatives is a daunting, fairly complex process. One of the key focus areas that it engulfs is cloud security, requiring specified and intensive technology, cultural and process innovation. The following are some of the key security challenges that organizations face when adopting a multi-cloud strategy.
Attack Surface
During the integration of multi-cloud, organizations take the risk of expanding their attack surface significantly. This makes security posture a foremost priority for these organizations, which in turn leads to the adoption of a holistic approach to agility and security. With the advent of new technologies, it is necessary that multi-cloud strategies provide the flexibility to switch securely between services, irrespective of its topology and geography.
Shared Security Model
Organizations are still responsible for doing their part in the shared security model. This requires them to understand the multi-cloud deployment zones and accounts where they need visibility for monitoring vulnerabilities if any. There are various aspects that organizations must keep in mind during the integration of multi-cloud architecture. As these organizations will be leveraging different cloud platforms in parallel, it is imperative that these platforms are selected carefully. Also, the organizations must have a thorough understanding of every CSP that they are working with.
Data Visibility
Security and privacy enhancing multi-cloud architectures involves the risk of losing the sight of data. It is often seen that the IT team might have visibility into the individual cloud platforms with the help of tools. However, they face difficulties in identifying or correlating data threats across multiple cloud platforms. Any security tool that is leveraged to secure the IT infrastructure must seamlessly share the information on security control. Also, these security tools must work harmoniously for addressing cyberattacks when they occur.
Functionality & Enforcement
It is highly necessary that the functionality and enforcement of security must work in coherence with the cloud environments they are deployed. To achieve this, organizations must have the ability of identifying information that comply with the cloud infrastructure being used. At the same time, the functionality of security must be delivered similarly over every cloud infrastructure. It is usually seen that the third-party, cloud-based security tools best support all the clouds being leveraged.
What Does It Mean for Organizations?
A secure multicloud architecture helps organizations drive digital strategy, enhance infrastructure modernization and accelerate security transformation. It is indispensable that organizations adopting multicloud factor security challenges into their strategy, right from the beginning. They must make continuous efforts into ensuring the harmony of integrated security solutions and increasing data visibility across all cloud platforms. In the foreseeable future, multicloud architectures are touted to be a great way for building an agile, cost-efficient infrastructure.
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