THE EXPERTS SPEAK

BACK IN 2010, THE QUESTION OF WHETHER THE CLOUD WAS MORE SECURE THAN ON-PREMISES INFRASTRUCTURE WAS HOTLY DEBATED. IN THE CURRENT LANDSCAPE, THE ADOPTION OF SAAS AND CLOUD SERVICES HAS MADE THIS IRRELEVANT. IN FACT, MANY NEW AND EMERGING APPLICATIONS ARE ONLY AVAILABLE IN THE CLOUD, AND MOST APPLICATIONS INTERACT WITH NUMEROUS APIS HOSTED IN THIRD-PARTY CLOUDS AND DATA CENTERS.

“AS THE CLOUD HAS BECOME THE DEFAULT PLATFORM FOR MANY APPLICATIONS, AND THE QUESTION OF WHETHER THE CLOUD IS MORE SECURE THAN ON-PREMISES INFRASTRUCTURE IS LIKELY NO LONGER RELEVANT. CLOUD PROVIDERS CAN OFFER NUMEROUS ADVANTAGES, INCLUDING ECONOMIES OF SCALE, REGULAR UPDATES, DATA REDUNDANCY, COMPLIANCE FEATURES, AND TACKLE UNIQUE CHALLENGES SUCH AS REMOTE WORK AND DDOS PROTECTION. THEREFORE, ADOPTING CLOUD SERVICES IS ESSENTIAL FOR BUSINESSES LOOKING TO TRANSFORM DIGITALLY AND STAY SECURE IN THE EVER-CHANGING THREAT LANDSCAPE.

Bashar Bashaireh, Managing Director - Middle East and Türkiye at Cloudflare

WHEN CLOUD SERVICES ARE USED AND CONFIGURED PROPERLY THEY CAN BE JUST AS SECURE, IF NOT MORE SECURE, THAN TRADITIONAL ON-PREMISE ENVIRONMENTS. THE CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDERS ARE ARGUABLY INCENTIVIZED TO INVEST IN SECURITY EVEN MORE THAN ANY SINGLE COMPANY. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE SECURITY ISSUES THAT ARISE BUT IT IS INCUMBENT ON SECURITY TEAMS TO UNDERSTAND THE INS AND OUTS OF THE VARIOUS CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDERS TO ENSURE THAT SECURITY IS EMBEDDED IN THE ARCHITECTURE, ENGINEERING, AND DAY-TO-DAY OPERATIONS.

Frank Kim, SANS Institute Fellow, Cloud Curriculum lead, and CISO-in-Residence at YL Ventures