Understanding control security and risk when moving to cloud - Photo by Austin Distel on UnsplashFears that cloud environments are less secure than on-premise solutions have long been a barrier to organisations making the move to the cloud.  While some organisations remain hesitant, cloud security is no longer the obstacle that it once was.

According to a report conducted by Nominet, 61% of security professionals now believe that the risk associated with a security breach in a cloud environment is the same as or less than that of software installed on-premise.

This view is backed by Gartner. It predicts that in 2020 public cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) workloads will suffer at least 60% fewer security incidents than those in traditional data centres.

Attitudes have changed, and for most technology leaders the benefits of public cloud now outweigh the concerns. Cloud providers are now viewed as the experts in security – their business depends on it. They hire the best industry talent to protect the infrastructure and invest heavily in the latest security innovation for cloud-based solutions. Increasing cloud adoption means making security needs the cornerstone of any cloud-based business.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is currently the largest provider dominating the public cloud market. It has been leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for nine straight years. According to Gartner, AWS accounts for 47.8% of the 2018 IaaS public cloud services market share. That is more than three times the market share of Microsoft Azure, which has 15.5% of the market.

Operational Challenges of Public Cloud

Cloud infrastructure and services are now considered secure. However, organisations need to be aware of inherent risks in their workloads. Moving applications to the cloud may result in vulnerabilities becoming easier to exploit.

Virtual cloud infrastructure and services provide you with maximum flexibility and great security options. To keep your workloads secure, security patching, application security and pen testing processes need to be in place. This means striking a balance between utilising the flexibility of cloud to react to ever-changing business needs, and the compliance and security requirements of the business.

An element adding additional complexity is the more recent trend for multi-cloud strategies. It is beneficial for a business to not be reliant on a single vendor. However, each vendor has different pricing models, features and terminology along with different compliance models. These need to be navigated and processes put in place to achieve a common base level of security and compliance across all vendors.

The effort, expertise and level of skill required is significant and many businesses struggle to manage this effectively. Furthermore, none of these things are moving your organisation’s core business forward. Importantly, they are often a distraction from your business’s core mission but still tie up essential resources with non-core tasks.

Retaining Business Focus with Managed Cloud Services

There is an alternative to doing this in-house. Choose a trusted partner who specialises in cloud-hosted managed services to deliver the solution on your behalf. It takes care of the day-to-day operation of the platform. This allows the business to focus on moving forward with its core activities. It allows the business to keep using the technology that has served it well. Additionally, the business benefits from the flexibility and seemingly limitless resources available in the cloud without needing to build an in-house team of cloud experts.

Gartner says: “The cloud managed service landscape is becoming increasingly sophisticated and competitive. In fact, by 2022, up to 60% of organisations will use an external service provider’s cloud managed service offering, which is double the percentage of organisations from 2018.”

For many organisations this is a win-win. Clearvision’s ClearHost solution is a managed service designed and operated by our in-house team of cloud experts. It helps organisations of all sizes with the management of their mission-critical applications. Powered by AWS, who are ISO 9001, ISO 27001 and SOC2 certified, it is managed entirely by Clearvision.

Clearvision has the expertise, automations and economies of scale to handle a large number of workloads. With its recent ISO 27001 certification, it has been independently verified to adhere to industry best practices. This ensures your productivity tools are both available and secure.

Make the right choices for your business

The world of business is moving to the cloud. You must understand how to manage complexity, cost and security are top priorities. Many organisations, however, are finding that the vast number of options available to them can result in too many blind alleys being followed. They are, therefore, struggling to realise the real benefits of cloud.

Cloud provides many options, but it ultimately comes down to what is best for your business. It is important to take a realistic view of the challenges that cloud can introduce. Do you know what resources are needed to build and manage cloud environments? What is the best technology for your business? Is it IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service), SaaS (Software-as-a-Service), or hosted environment built on the secure foundation of public cloud? A trusted partner will help you choose and manage your cloud.


ClearvisionLogoFounded in 2005, Clearvision is an ISO 27001 certified Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner. Experts within the company have helped hundreds of businesses using the Atlassian stack with their consultancy, hosting, training, and support needs.

Enabling teams to reach their full potential is the company’s mantra, which is shown through the time and money saved by customers who need not compromise on quality.

Clearvision caters to Atlassian customers, in addition to providing services including ClearHost, its trusted hosting platform powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), and ClearHub a platform for businesses searching for expert Jira, Confluence, and DevOps Contractors, anywhere in the world, with built-in technical support.

For more information, please visit www.clearvision-cm.com. Follow Clearvision on Twitter @clearvisioncm or LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/clearvision/ to stay up to date with the latest announcements in the Atlassian ecosystem and beyond.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here