Best Practices to Stay Safe in Growing Cloud Environment

While businesses look at public cloud services as they are cheaper, many mature players are migrating to private as well hybrid cloud services. In fact, India is expected to lead hybrid cloud adoption in the world in the next two years.

With the cloud environment continuing to evolve, organisations should start focusing on best practices to remain safe. Storing data in the cloud opens your organisation to a host of potential security threats. Data security and privacy thus become a significant concern for every business using cloud or planning the migration. It is only by adopting a sound and secure strategy for cloud implementation that organisations can experience the top cloud benefits.

While data privacy legislation is being worked upon in several parts of the world, their speed is not able to compete with the rate at which the cloud technology is progressing. So, until the time proper legislation is in place, you and your service provider are solely responsible for the safety of your data in the cloud.

What you need is a fail-safe policy for dealing with the risks. If you are concerned about the safety of your data stored in the cloud, here are some of the best practices you should implement.

1. Monitor the Cloud
You can only secure the things that you see. This requisite makes it crucial for organisations to maintain continuous visibility into all of their cloud technology services and assets. So, ensure that you monitor user activity and behaviour and also have alerts set up to have a precise knowledge of what is happening to your assets all the time. It is only with real-time information of the usage of your cloud infrastructure, data, applications and users can you understand and mitigate the attacks and security concerns.

2. Machine Learning for Preventing Threats
Many organisations have now started using machine learning for identifying any unusual behaviour that indicates a threat to their cloud data. For instance, machine learning can detect if any of your sensitive data is being downloaded repeatedly. This pattern can make it easier for you to keep an eye out for such events. However, do not replace your other security measures entirely with machine learning. The technology should be used along with other security technologies to keep your cloud data protected.

3. Using Access Control Policies
It is easy for cloud users to enable any SaaS application that could threaten the security of your data on the cloud. Hence, access control policies are a must for any cloud environment. For instance, you can restrict access to particular data to people from specific geographic locations. While implementing access control, however, ensure the functionality of your encryption algorithms is in line with the services they are trying to protect. Similarly, within your organisation, you also need to implement role-based access control to make sure that not everybody can access all of your cloud data.

4. Clear Responsibilities
Many organisations that misunderstand cloud-based services assume that their service provider is entirely responsible for everything related to their data security. While there is no denying that the service provider is indeed accountable, you too need to be cautious at your end. Managing passwords, implementing role-based access control, preventing theft or loss of devices, protection against identity fraud and so on are a few things that you are responsible for. While your service provider might help you with these processes, the business has to also be careful and diligent on their part.

5. Combine Cloud with Physical Storage
It is generally recommended that you should combine cloud with physical storage to increase the safety of your data. This solution is called a hybrid strategy. Even if your data stored at a particular medium or device is compromised, you can still rest assured that you will not lose all of it. A good practice is to keep three copies of your data, store it on two different devices (apart from the cloud) and maintain one or more copy offsite.

Experiencing the Best Benefits of Cloud Environment While Keeping the Data Protected
It is vital for every organisation to have a comprehensive cloud security strategy. One of the most critical steps in keeping your cloud environment protected is to work with reliable cloud service providers like Tata Tele Business Services (TTBS).

Many businesses are opting for SmartVPN from TTBS with the Secure Connect feature, which allows your private network to link with the leading cloud service providers securely and enables faster and seamless data transfer.

The company also offers a host of other cloud services and solutions to help businesses meet their objectives in a safe, efficient and affordable manner. With a plethora of services like Colocation, Managed Hosting, Document Management and Mobile Device Management, TTBS is well-equipped to offer the best of cloud experience.