A Quick Guide For Security in the Public Cloud

Making the jump to cloud storage is a pretty big deal. It marks a significant shift in a company’s architecture and offers a number of benefits that aren’t available using local storage. That being said, while the public cloud has a leg up in terms of flexibility, the private cloud always seems to have one significant advantage: greater data security.

While concerns over public cloud security aren’t entirely unfounded, the idea still makes IT teams a bit uneasy. If you’re looking to make the move to a public cloud but the thought of a data breach keeps you up at night, we’ve got you covered. The editors of Solutions Review have pieced together some top expert advice for locking down your data after the big jump.

CSP Contracts

With private and on-prem storage, you really don’t need to worry about this since, well, you are the cloud service provider. With public storage, things tend to work a little differently. If you’re looking to ensure that your public CSP is held accountable for each of its security obligations, the contract should clearly outline them. Remember that it’s better to be safe than sorry in this case; so don’t make any assumptions! In addition, you may want to consider making a list of any security concerns that you’d like to see addressed in the contract.

Responsibilities

Clearing up responsibilities at the beginning can prevent a mess of finger pointing later down the road. While cloud service providers will always boast the measures they take to keep their customer’s data safe, that doesn’t mean they cover everything. It’s critical to review a potential cloud provider’s shared security model. Often times the CSP is responsible for the security of the infrastructure, while the customer is responsible for everything on the infrastructure. Additionally, while a CSP may use firewalls, authentication, and public keys to keep information safe in the cloud, but during transit from and to the cloud, information security usually falls in the customer’s hands.

Cloud Security Services

According to a recent study, a majority of customers running infrastructure on AWS considered security to be their number one priority. However, the same study found that many of these customers failed to employ existing cloud security service. These services allow customers to federate to their web-based and SaaS applications through their provider, and lets service providers connect to their customers through a secure channel without requiring them to open their firewall ports.

You CAN Go Home Again

Keep in mind that just because you may have made the decision to move to public cloud, doesn’t mean you always need to stay there. An IDG study found that 40 percent of those using public cloud storage have brought some workloads back on-premises. The most common reasons for leaving public cloud storage platforms are security, cost, manageability, and reliability. If you ever feel unsure about the security of your data, know that you can always start to move certain workloads back to a private cloud or to on-premises storage.