Understanding the Benefits of Cloud Security

If your business was hacked tomorrow, would your private and customer data be safe? Implementing the benefits of cloud security is critical not only to protect your data, but also your reputation and bottom-line success. 

Explore the benefits of cloud security and see how optimizing your cyber resilience strategy is key to protecting your organization’s most valuable asset—your data. 

The imperative of cloud security in today’s digital age 

There’s no doubt cloud technology is completely transforming business infrastructure and in today’s digital world, cloud security is critical. Wasabi’s 2024 Cloud Storage Index results show that organizations see cloud storage as interchangeable with modern IT infrastructure. Why? The inherent ease and simplicity of cloud storage services means less time and money must be spent on expensive hardware management, leaving resources available for higher-value initiatives. 

However, with the scalability, agility, and cost-effectiveness of cloud comes the need for a robust, multi-layered cyber resilience strategy to keep data safe. Your security plan must address the mix of policies, technologies, and shared responsibilities between you and the cloud provider to be effective. 

How does cloud security support cyber resilience?

While individual security layers can work to prevent data breaches and damage, your ability to withstand and seamlessly recover from cyberattacks is the foundation of a robust, secure business operation that all stakeholders and customers can trust implicitly.

Because cyber threats constantly evolve, companies must adapt new defenses to stop them. And while a cloud provider is responsible for securing the infrastructure, cyber resilience is a shared responsibility between the provider and user. Ultimately, you must protect your company’s data and access points—the most common target for malicious actors—by identifying areas of vulnerability and creating multiple layers of security. This shared responsibility model ensures that any one failure does not compromise the entire system.  

Core benefits of cloud security

Companies that practice continuous security improvement see many benefits of cloud security. They are building resilience and safeguarding sensitive information like financial records, intellectual property, and customer data against malicious attacks and unauthorized users. They’re also more compliant, cost effective, and flexible. Benefits of cloud security include: 

• Enhanced protection against cyber threats 

• Compliance with regulatory standards 

• Cost-effectiveness of cloud security solutions 

• Scalability for growing businesses 

Many industries have strict regulations regarding data privacy and security. Integrated cloud security frameworks and tools that facilitate data governance, access control and audit logging help organizations meet regulatory compliance with laws such as HIPAA, GDPR, and CCPA, reducing the risk not only of data breaches but hefty fines from governing bodies for any lapses.  

Those types of built-in, native cloud security solutions are not just a nice-to-have, they’re expected by tech-savvy organizations. In the Wasabi 2024 Cloud Storage Index, over a third of companies said native data protection, security and compliance features are key factors they consider when buying cloud storage.  

Cybersecurity doesn’t operate in a vacuum, either. Strong integrated cloud security can scale up or down to meet the evolving needs of a company and fortify its data fortress. Flexible, secure storage supports business continuity and disaster recovery plans, including data loss prevention, minimizing downtime in the event of cyberattacks, natural disasters, power outages, and other unforeseen incidents.

Key components of a robust cloud security strategy  

Companies have a range of security tools to choose from to build robust cybersecurity. Measures like data encryption, identity management, and regular auditing help overcome common cloud security challenges and prevent cyberattacks. Companies with a strong cloud security posture analyze critical vulnerabilities and implement actionable defense practices to overcome them.  

Mitigate data breach risks with encryption 

By encrypting data at rest and in transit, you ensure that any information just looks like alphabet soup to would-be thieves. Server-side encryption with customer-provided encryption keys (SSE-C) means the cloud provider manages all the encryption programming while you set and manage encryption keys. Without the key, data objects remain locked. End-to-end encryption adds an extra layer by securing data at the point it’s sent and ensuring only intended recipients can access it. 

Other techniques besides encryption offer rigorous cloud data protections as well. Practices like air gapping to isolate critical systems from any internet or network connection and immutability to ensure data integrity after it’s stored in the cloud also work to prevent unauthorized access. Implementing the 3-2-1 backup rule—three copies of data on two different storage media, and one offsite copy—protects data crucial to disaster recovery.  

Build a human firewall for compliance 

Advanced identity and access management (IAM) systems go a long way toward guaranteeing the safety and integrity of your data. This layer of cloud security spells out who exactly can access resources and what they can do with them. Functions such as multi-factor authentication, minimum user access and software security assurance focus on granting the right amount of privilege necessary without fully opening the vault to all. 

Regular security assessments and audits shore up the last line of defense. Companies can proactively identify vulnerabilities and address them before they’re exploited. Actively monitoring your network security to spot potential threats while deploying security measures like immutability and replication are boosts to compliance status as well.  

Have a plan that defines roles, responsibilities, and protocols for responding to incidents while outlining potential risks and how you will contain and recover from security attacks. Training your security team goes hand-in-hand with compliance; conduct rigorous, routine training so employees understand cybersecurity best practices and are empowered to be another shield against threats. Phishing and social engineering prey on unsuspecting members of the organization. Educating your staff on how to spot these threats help ensure the overall health of your organization’s digital ecosystem and ensure the highest level of security possible. 

The realities of AI and automation in cloud data security  

Perhaps just as ubiquitous as cloud technology is in digital transformation, artificial intelligence and machine learning are impacting modern IT as well—including cloud security. It is essential that organizations understand: 

• How AI and ML both challenge and enhance security 

• Changes in global data protection regulations 

• Ongoing cloud-resilience strategizing 

While most companies have or are planning to adopt AI and ML in their IT systems, many of these projects are still in their early stages, and many executives are concerned about the integrity and accuracy of their enterprise data in generative AI environments, according to the 2024 Cloud Storage Index. 

Central to this concern are the cloud storage-related considerations organizations face when it comes to their AI/ML adoption. Data storage across a range of locations—from core data centers and edge/remote locations to hybrid and multicloud environments—all play a role in the decision-making process.  

AI can automate threat detection and response, analyzing vast amounts of data to identify and neutralize security breaches in real-time and boost proactive compliance measures. Additionally, ML algorithms can learn and adapt to new security threats, continuously improving an organizations’ overall security posture and building greater trust among stakeholders and customers. 

Trust is key. Data privacy is a top issue for customers as they give personal information online to retailers, healthcare providers, and entertainment venues, among other industries. Local and national governments across the globe are responding to the need for greater protections with more complex regulations aimed at emerging issues like the increasing use of AI to protect children on the Internet. 

Cloud service providers and organizations alike need to stay informed about evolving regulations to ensure compliance. Cloud security solutions that integrate compliance automation and continuous security can help organizations meet the needs of customers and regulators alike. 

Cloud data security is a journey, not a destination 

Keeping your data in a compliant, offsite vault surrounded by layers of cloud security instills confidence in your customers, employees, and your business that your sensitive data is well-protected. Wasabi's secure cloud object storage empowers you to build an impenetrable data fortress with security features like immutability and multi-user authentication so your business is protected against even the most sophisticated cyber threats. Explore how Wasabi can help future-proof your defenses and ensure that your business is in compliance with the highest standards of data privacy and protection.