Monday, August 24

Addressing the Cloud Security Readiness Gap

Cloud security is about much more than security functionality. The top cloud providers all seem to have a capable suite of security features and most surveyed organizations report that they see all the top cloud platforms as generally secure. So, why do 92% of surveyed organizations still report a cloud security readiness gap? They’re not comfortable with the security implications of moving workloads to cloud even if they believe it’s a secure environment and even if the platform offers a robust set of security features. 

Two contributing factors to that gap include:

  • 78% reported that cloud requires different security than on-prem. With security skills at a shortage, the ability to quickly ramp up on a new architecture and a new set of security capabilities can certainly slow progress.
  • Only 8% of respondents claimed to fully understand the cloud security shared responsibilities model; they don’t even know what they’re responsible for; never mind how to implement the right policies and procedures, hire the right people, or find the right security technologies.

I recently posted about how Oracle is addressing the gap on the Oracle Cloud Security blog. There's a link in the post to a new whitepaper from Dao Research that evaluates the cloud security capabilities offered by Amazon AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

Oracle took some criticism for arriving late to the game with our cloud infrastructure offering. But, several years of significant investments are paying off. Dao's research concludes that “Oracle has an edge over Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, as it provides a more centralized security configuration and posture management, as well as more automated enforcement of security practices at no additional cost. This allows OCI customers to enhance overall security without requiring additional manual effort, as is the case with AWS, Azure, and GCP.

A key take-away for me is that sometimes, the competitive edge in security in delivered through simplicity and ease of use. We've heard over and over for several years that complexity is the enemy of security. If we can remove human error, bake-in security by default, and automate security wherever possible, then the system will be more secure than if we're relying on human effort to properly configure and maintain the system and its security.

Click here to check out the post and the Dao Research whitepaper.