Cloud computing services help organisations to automate intrinsic and extrinsic processes to save time, money, and allow high accessibility to customers
This is an exclusive interview conducted by the Editor Team of CIO News with Kavitha Srinivasulu, Global Head of Cyber Risk & Data Privacy – BFSI R&C at Tata Consultancy Services.
Kavitha Srinivasulu has around 19+ years of experience focused on cybersecurity, data privacy, and business resilience across BFSI, financial services, retail, manufacturing, health care, IT services, and telecom domains. She has demonstrated her core expertise in risk advisory, business consulting, and delivery assurance with diverse experience across corporate and strategic partners. She is a natural leader with the versatility to negotiate and influence at all levels. The views and opinions expressed by Kavitha in this article are only from her personal side and do not represent her company’s viewpoints or share any of her customers’ views.
Cloud computing has developed its invaluable benefits and business experience across various verticals, increasing data security. According to a recent survey, around 70% of all existing businesses make use of cloud computing for remote operations, managing critical data and backing up business-critical information with multi-level security. This new technology has enabled smooth operations for businesses in almost every industry across the globe. Cloud security plays a major role in managing the controls, processes, and policies that combine to protect all cloud-based systems, data, and infrastructure in a robust manner.
Cloud security is a shared responsibility between an organisation and its own cloud service provider. Enterprise level implementation helps organisations protect corporate data, adhere to regulatory compliance, and protect customer information. The secure and transparent nature of cloud services has also helped organisations adhere to legal and regulatory requirements, making the cloud the best go-to option for most e-commerce operations.
As per recent studies, the global cloud computing market is expected to reach $623.3 billion by 2023. The cloud is the ultimate tool in building highly scalable and flexible networks to improve business resilience and reduce downtime. Hence, businesses of all types and sizes have realised the potential of cloud computing and have adapted to this technology either as a private, public, or hybrid model.
Cloud computing services help organisations to automate intrinsic and extrinsic processes to save time, money, and allow high accessibility to customers. Enabling cloud security controls helps in directory synchronisation and geo-localization of data effectively. Common physical infrastructure-dependent systems focused on static servers require high-cost individual licences and software. However, the cloud offers a much more flexible model of distributed systems using SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS models.
Types of Cloud Computing
Some of the key cloud computing offerings across the industries are defined and employed by the cloud service providers:
- Public networks
These networks are meant for public use and are hosted by certain organizations for this purpose.
- Private networks
These are meant for internal hosting and are generally used by private bodies for secure usage.
- Hybrid networks
This represents a mix of the on-premises network and cloud storage model made up of distinct networks working in tandem.
It is not sufficient to understand the types of cloud networks that can be utilized across the business ops, but to choose the right set of solutions based on the functionalities is very important.
The different types of cloud computing solutions according to the functionalities are categorized as:
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
Software as a service (SaaS) is a software distribution model in which a cloud service provider hosts applications and makes them available to end users over the internet.
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Platform as a service (PaaS) is a cloud computing model where a cloud service provider delivers hardware and software tools to users over the internet
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is a type of cloud computing service that offers essential compute, storage and networking resources on demand, on a pay-per-usage basis.
Key Areas of Cloud Security
- Identity and Access Management.
- Cloud Governance, Risk and Compliance
- Data Discovery and Back Ups
- Data Protection
- Data Encryption
- Behavior Analytics
- Configuration Hardening
- Protecting the Network Layer.
- Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning
- Logging and Reporting
- Managing Security Monitoring, Alerting, Audit Trail, and Incident Response.
Understanding about the different cloud computing offerings, solutions and core security areas, the level of benefits and ease of usage is growing day by day effectively across the organizations. Some of the key benefits are –
- Bringing scalability, flexibility, sustainability, and reliability to business ops.
- Operational Flexibility
- Secure and Cost-effective Data Access
- Better Operational Control
- Optimal Storage Utilization
- Quick data recovery and automated data backup.
- 24X7 continuous monitoring
- Data availability and effective delivery assurance
- Cost effectiveness on a pay-per-usage basis.
- Automated Processes
- Lowering the ownership costs as compared to legacy networks.
- Reduce Downtimes
As technology grows and is utilised across the globe, new trends and capabilities emerge every year to strengthen the existing threat landscape. By 2022, the utilisation of IaaS will have superseded PaaS and SaaS models. There is a significant increase in organisations adapting to hybrid models to have control over data and cost optimization. While some companies find it easy to integrate cloud solutions into daily operations, hybrid cloud solutions will likely help most businesses shift more gradually into the cloud computing environment.
When it comes to addressing cloud security or data protection issues, the level of security around this space is growing, and at the same time, vulnerabilities will continue to cause a plethora of issues to be addressed. Organizations should enable cloud solutions diligently, making sure security controls are embedded within the app design, infrastructure, network, and development to minimise risks. It’s time to enable the right set of security controls and new ways to strengthen the security around the core cloud computing network against the most common security failures or misconfigurations.
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