Among planning for 2021, through budget and overall security and strategy planning, there is nothing more important as the increased need and focus on cloud governance.
Many organisations are significantly behind on planning towards governance, especially for those that can’t seem to shake legacy operational practices. The issues at hand carry real consequences - from cyber security to a mobile workforce, creating uncertainty and unchecked threats.
A world of governance gaps
Globally, the landscape of security, certification and compliance standards is broad and incorporates measures over data, cyber security, financial, and contractual components. Yet, despite this complicated and perilous reality, reports indicate that companies are not properly harnessing the flexible technologies that can easily operate throughout multiple clouds and hybrid cloud situations.
Among the most concerning gaps, control and visibility over user access stand out
Among the most concerning gaps, control and visibility over user access stand out. This deficit in governance is particularly present in legacy IT environments, where many businesses still rely on manual reporting processes or exhibit no governance reviews at all. Adding to these demands, specific industries carry their requirements for reporting:
- FinTech
- ITOps
- DevOps
- CloudOps
- Healthcare
- Education
- Government
By creating roles and access levels with appropriate permissions, organisations can minimise the impact of unknown risk points.
Risks today and threats tomorrow
Information technology budgets are shifting to new pressing post-COVID-19 pandemic priorities, as companies look to recover and hopefully thrive, while positioning security at the forefront of a more remote workforce.
Despite this focus, cyber security attacks and data breaches continue to grow, affecting as much as half of all organisations, in any given year. This is a continual battle that must always be sustained and invariably, can aid to trace incidents back to deficiencies and risk points in time.
Enterprises can get on their proverbial soapboxes about security and compliance, but without correlation followed by governance, the overall deficit between the optimal cloud and what organisations roll out will continue to grow.
Accelerating cloud adoption
The cloud giants are experiencing benchmark years in growth and revenue
The current COVID-19 pandemic has prompted businesses to respond to financial and operational conditions, by adopting a greater cloud foundation. The cloud giants are experiencing benchmark years in growth and revenue. With competitive pressures on the rise and budgetary objectives at their backs, a greater base of businesses is arriving at their cloud start point, as a matter of priority.
Simultaneously, institutional bodies across states and national borders are imposing security and privacy regulations that carry significant weight and consequence. For reference, consider the countless implications of working and engaging directly with China, the European Union (EU), the FDA, and others.
Compliance and security are different practices, but related
The biggest takeaway from these compounding factors is that with cloud adoption on the rise, governance is an important and fiercely connected component in the overall growth within the enterprise.
Compliance and security are different practices, but they are related because organisations that miss the boat on governance and are inefficient with compliance, find themselves in a web of business risks that could be remediated with scalable tools. Compliance is essentially the verification of good security practices, while governance is the foundation for good compliance.
Era of multi-cloud environments
This is especially important with the growing base of cloud environments, when companies have firmly stepped into the era of multi-cloud environments. Deficiencies in control and visibility across technologically diverse and changing foundations only serve to highlight issues that can be seen in audit, compliance and security efforts.
Cloud governance is a broad and rapidly evolving movement. Security teams and compliance requirements have pushed on the tenets of visibility and automated reporting for years, but there’s never been quite as pressing a time as now.
- Network / IP
- Electronic security systems
- Office security systems
- Office security
- Application security
- Physical security
- Perimeter security
- Security management
- Security policy
- Security devices
- Security installation
- Security access systems
- Asset tracking
- Electronic access control
- Identity management
- Building security
- Facility security
- Door access control
- Security software
- Security service
- Physical Security Information Management (PSIM)
- Testing & Approvals
- Integration software
- Perimeter protection
- Research & Testing
- Cyber security
- Internet of Things (IoT)
- Corporate Security
- Data Security
- Incident Management
- Security Assessments
- Cloud security
- Artificial intelligence (AI)
- Mobile access
- COVID-19
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Machine Learning
- Touchless Security
