Navigating Priorities: Cloud vs Cyber For SMEs

Uploaded on 2023-09-18 in NEWS-News Analysis, FREE TO VIEW

As SMEs navigate the era of digitlisation, they’re faced with a pivotal question: Should they prioritise the rapid adoption of cloud solutions, or implement measures to strengthen their cybersecurity posture? Both critical components, striking the right balance has become a significant challenge. And the laser sharp focus on IT budgets doesn’t make the feat any easier.

Among the most pressing priority for UK firms, adoption of cloud security has jumped over the past few years and ti has already proven to be an indispensable force in the modern business environment.

Offering scalable infrastructure, enhanced collaboration and cost-efficiency, to name just a few benefits, cloud technology can empower organisations to streamline operations, scale their services on demand and respond swiftly to market needs.

However, digital transformation doesn’t come without its challenges. With more data storage, networking components and virtualised resources in the cloud, comes greater opportunity for threat actors to exploit systems.

As such, SMEs must weigh the benefits against potential security and privacy risks first.

Fostering trust among customers and stakeholders alike, laying the groundwork is vital for SMEs striving to establish a strong market presence. Yet, an excessive focus on cybersecurity might hinder the seamless support that cloud adoption can offer. Ultimately, SMEs must strike a delicate balance between the two priorities.

Understanding Priority Determinants

Cybersecurity should be a foundational consideration that drives cloud strategy, rather than an afterthought. Much like peeling the layers of an onion, the number of security measures an organisation requires depends entirely on its unique needs. For instance, a financial institution handling sensitive customer data will likely need more robust security measures than a creative agency. Growth aspirations also play a crucial role; as your organisation expands, so do the potential entry points for cyber threats.

SMEs shouldn’t break the bank, though. Cybersecurity can be an expensive — albeit crucial — investment, and not every business needs to go all the way down the rabbit hole. Instead, it’s about focusing on savvy strategies that offer robust protection during the transition to cloud. Despite common misconceptions, these investments shouldn’t centre entirely on prevention. Perpetrators are socially engineered to stay one step ahead. The chances are, most firms already have an attack bubbling away under the surface, waiting for the most opportune moment to be triggered. That’s why the focus should instead centre on identifying, isolating, and remediating risks at the earliest opportunity. People can be fallible, so shoring up endpoints should be one of the first priorities.

An introspective analysis of an SME’s existing tech estate — including legacy on-premise kit and elements already housed in the cloud — will help identify any infrastructure that’s vulnerable to attacks, uncover redundant systems that are causing budgets to spiral unnecessarily, as well as evaluate potential scalability requirements. In doing so, transformation leads can ensure systems are secured before progressing with the transition to cloud. It’s much more difficult to integrate security mid-migration, and brings far greater risk too.

If you’re using a public cloud, you may at this point be thinking, ‘none of this applies to our environment’. That couldn’t be further from the truth. So many firms are bound by the idea that providers like AWS, Microsoft and Google have all bases covered. While they offer valuable services, your organisation’s cybersecurity responsibilities don’t magically disappear when you migrate to the public cloud. Your environment — including firewalls, encryptions, and endpoints — still demands careful consideration.

Measuring A Successful Balance

As migration progresses, cybersecurity should no longer be viewed as a separate entity but as an essential thread of the broader cloud adoption project. A multifaceted approach - combining expert guidance, advanced technology and continuous evaluation - will help SMEs chart the right path towards a successful, integrated strategy.

Of course, cyber attacks are evolving constantly. As such, measures implemented today may no longer be fit for purpose 12 months down the line. And SMEs must be at the bleeding edge of technology to effectively grapple with the ever-changing challenges that emerge. Only those who deal with breaches day in and day out possess the insights and trends needed to continuously remediate and enhance security measures.

Seeking the support of a cloud-agnostic security expert to provide a comprehensive review can help significantly strengthen this feat. A two-fold process, it not only acknowledges the importance of specialisation, but fosters impartiality too.

Often leveraging AI and automation within reporting, alongside a human questionnaire, a cyber risk assessment offers a well-rounded view of an SME’s security posture. With this holistic analysis, CTOs are left with a general security score that paves the way for further development to mature the cloud roadmap.

You wouldn’t mark your own homework. With even higher stakes and escalating risks, why should cybersecurity be any different?

Mark Allen is Head of Cyber Transformational Technology at CloudCoCo Group

Image: Getty Images

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