The State of Cloud Security in 2022

Over half of the respondents (56.3%) we surveyed expect the percentage of their workload that takes place in the cloud to increase by at least 50% over the next three years. Many professionals predict companies will rely less on specific cloud-based tools and platforms and shift toward migrating enterprise-level applications to cloud-based solutions. For example, Gartner expects global spending on cloud services to reach over $482 billion in 2022 alone

When asked what specific threats IT professionals are most concerned with regarding cloud security, over 75% of them said data breaches. A data breach is any attack on a cloud-based system that leaks confidential information to an unauthorized entity. Data breaches were also at the heart of other concerns respondents had, such as customer PII (personally identifiable information) and loss of confidence in brand efficacy.

We asked our respondents what security measures they took to protect valuable information stored in the cloud. Many IT professionals we surveyed rely on a combination of multi-cloud security programs (63.7%), cloud security posture management (56.0%), and out-of-the-box cloud security tools from public cloud providers (49.5%). Multi-cloud security solutions provide an additional layer of protection for business and customer data, assets, and applications against threats across multiple channels and cloud-based systems.

As we conducted our survey, we wanted to find out what prevents companies from investing in cloud security. Nearly 60% of IT professionals said they have already noticed economic fluctuations having a large impact on budgets and staffing for cloud security, while 80% of them think organizations cut corners when it comes to protecting sensitive data that is stored in the cloud. Over 9 in 10 IT professionals said data breaches make consumers lose trust in a business, while an additional three-quarters have, themselves, stopped using a service due to concerns about data security.

Data breaches can not only compromise a company’s data but also customers’ personal information. As breaches continue to increase year over year, many consumers are concerning themselves with how brands handle their PII. For many brands, a breach of privacy that leaks customer information could be a death blow. A survey in 2019 conducted by Businesswire found that 81% of consumers would stop doing business with a company online following a data breach.

Closing Thoughts

Threats to our data impact our day-to-day operations at work and how clients and customers interact with our brands online. As work becomes more connected and reliant on the cloud, we need to understand the importance of cloud security and take the appropriate steps to protect ourselves and our customers. During our survey, we found that IT professionals and customers alike place a high level of importance on how a company takes care to protect its sensitive data.

Are you in the process of migrating your enterprise’s applications and infrastructure to cloud-based systems? If so, it’s important to ensure that any sensitive data you collect and store on the cloud is kept secure and under strict surveillance. Versa SASE can help your organization monitor and protect all of your company’s network users and ensure that sensitive data is secured in the cloud.

Methodology

To find out what the experts think about cloud security in 2022, we surveyed 600 IT and data professionals over a three-day period in September 2022 and got their thoughts regarding their use of the cloud, how cloud security comes into play for them, and what organizations might be looking for regarding cloud deployment. We also asked questions to get their insight into how economic fluctuations affect the industry and what we can expect to see over the next few years.