Go Big on Security:
5 Steps to Overcome Security
Concerns in the Cloud
David Linthicum
With a bit of understanding and
planning, there’s no reason your data
won’t be as secure in the public
cloud as it is in most on-premise sys-
tems. Actually, your public cloud
security can surpass your on-prem-
ise security.
Here’s the reality: Public cloud providers have better
security mechanisms in place and are more paranoid
— and attentive — to security risks throughout their
entire stack. Considering the paranoia around cloud
computing and security, most public cloud-based sys-
tems have better thought-out security mechanisms
than those in traditional data centers.
Why Do Many Enterprises Still Dis-
trust the Cloud?
What public clouds bring to the table are better secu-
rity mechanisms and paranoia as a default, given how
juicy they are as targets. The cloud providers are much
better at systemic security services, such as looking
out for attacks using pattern matching technology and
even AI systems. This combination means they have
very secure systems.
It should be no surprise that the hackers move on to
easier pickings: Enterprise data centers.
The on-premise systems that IT manages are typically
a mix of technologies from different eras. The aging
infrastructure is often less secure – and less securable
– than the modern technology used by cloud provid-
ers. This is simply because the old, on-premise tech-
nology was designed for an earlier era of less-sophisti-
cated threats. The mixture of different technologies in
the typical on-premise data center also opens up more
gaps for hackers to exploit.
Because on-premise systems continue to age, their
intrinsic security can be easily defeated by hackers.
Moreover, the number of attacks increase weekly, and
defenses need to be proactive – more proactive than
most enterprise IT organizations are, and likely more
proactive than they can each afford to be.
So why have you not gone big with cloud security? Per-
haps it’s just a lack of knowledge about the process to
secure your public cloud-based data store or
application.
Here are 5 easy steps to cloud computing security.
Step 1: Understand your True
Requirements.
As we implement cloud-based systems and wrap them
with the right security approaches and technology,
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