Five Best Practices to Manage Risks in the Cloud

October 26, 2021

Enterprises today demand and require faster, better, and innovative solutions to the hurdles of running big businesses. For that matter, their reliance on the cloud is understandable, as it indeed does provide the right tools that bring agility, efficiency, and flexibility in the workplace. Because of it, the business can run from any location, and geographical area is not a hurdle anymore. Employees can access their files and deliver them faster by only needing a good internet connection.

The growth in cloud computing is quite evident, as Gartner has predicted that by the end of 2021, the global usage of public cloud infrastructure can increase by 18.4% to $ 304.9 billion. It seems pretty apparent that pandemic has accelerated its growth that now has become a trend.

RISKS INVOLVED IN CLOUD 

The best solutions can also come with greater risk; in the same way, the risk in cloud platforms is also a part that cannot overlook. Some of the potential cloud risks that always keep hovering are:-

Financial: At times Cloud providers increase the rate of the cost that negatively impacts the ROI of the company.
Privacy: Sharing information with a third-party vendor always keeps an organization’s privacy at stake.
Compliance: The risk of failure to maintain compliance with the legal and contractual regulatory issues can turn up as a major let down.
Security: The access is only granted to the team members, so the internal threat is always a potential problem.
Performance and quality: The performance and quality can be a subject of degradation within the cloud if not appropriately maintained.
Technical: Customizing issues can create limitations to the cloud.

FIVE BEST PRACTICES TO MANAGE THESE RISKS IN CLOUD 

An understanding of the risk involved within the cloud service model can also lead to how certain practices can avoid these risks. Let’s have a look at these practices,

Planning business strategy: One of the best practices anyone can start with is by preparing a proper cloud computing model that aligns well with your business objectives to help you manage investments ultimately.
Be wise when you are choosing a cloud service provider: To have the right cloud service provider for your business, ensure you have done a proper vendor risk assessment to evaluate contractual clarity, ethics, legal liability, security, availability, etc.
Adopt the suitable deployment cloud service model: Cloud services offer different models like SaaS, IaaS, PaaS and its deployment models are also of three different categories, public, private and hybrid cloud. It is necessary to facilitate the adoption of cloud models and cloud deployment for minimizing risk for more significant optimization of business investment value.  
Have a thorough understanding of the shared risk with CSP: A complete understanding of the shared responsibility between the vendor and the organization is of greater importance. Watch out for the CSP’s defined boundaries; even in a security breach, the organization will be responsible for its data, access management, and identification.
Avoid storing your encryption keys with your data: It is far more advisable to consider storing your encryption keys On-premise rather than on the cloud. It helps the keys to getting separated from virtual private clouds for better utilization overall.

Conclusion

With greater benefits comes specific risk, but those risks get managed by certain practices that minimize the risk to less intensity. We learned about the five best practices to minimize these risks and be more attentive to look out for potential risks as well.

To get the first free consultation on cloud risk management and deployment services, click here.