Research Report
How cybersecurity guides your path in the cloud
5-MINUTE READ
June 22, 2022
Research Report
5-MINUTE READ
June 22, 2022
Many organizations have recognized they need flexible, scalable networks made possible by the cloud. New cloud-based technologies offer opportunities to drive innovation, automate and pursue new growth—or simply save money and be more efficient. And there’s an urgency to be ready with cloud as a continuum of capabilities to fulfill the promise of digital transformation.
Yet, accelerated cloud adoption also exposes organizations to new business risks—especially when it comes to security vulnerabilities. Organizations need to balance the security needs of today with those of tomorrow. They should secure their existing technology footprint, while being prepared to manage what lies ahead—wherever they are on the cloud journey. Security teams should be agile and aligned with the business to be ready to protect their organizations and take advantage of cloud opportunities.
30%
of CISOs said they don’t have the skills needed to move into the cloud.
Security teams need to recognize where their organization is on the cloud journey, yet they are hampered by:
While we recognize that there are a range of approaches that can be taken, the following routes represent the two ends of the spectrum commonly considered when moving to the cloud. Each route has different implications for how security teams steer progress on the cloud journey.
Sees the cloud journey through an incremental, tactical lens—less up-front investment, more cloud native approach, fast-tracks innovation. Security capabilities may be predominantly extensions of an existing ecosystem.
Move to a primary cloud provider in a SaaS, IaaS and PaaS environment to expand footprint.
Optimize integration and incremental change, with security that adds to your existing tool suite; work in native environments and infuse that into tools your teams already know; involves software engineering policy as code (DevSecOps).
Sees the cloud journey through a transformative, strategic lens. Security capabilities may be more transformational in terms of moving security networks to a zero trust approach.
Move to a hybrid/multi-cloud environment; more complex but provides longer-term resilience.
Disrupt and modernize complex systems; take on more strategic, forward-looking activities, such as adopting zero trust to transform the network security approach; initiate talent and culture shifts and changes to underlying security architecture.
For both routes, employ identity management and data security. The degree of complexity depends on which route is selected.
Security is the compass that helps guide effective decisions along the cloud journey.
Three considerations when using security as a compass to ease the cloud journey include:
Cloud security can enable better business outcomes by being:
In our own business we have been able to reduce build costs by 70%, cut in half the average time reduction to go-live operations and reduce run operations costs by 20% to 40% compared with our legacy approach. The Accenture cloud-native focused security offerings include:
In addition to our experience in undertaking a cloud-first journey we made a US$3B investment to help our clients shape, move, build and operate their businesses in the cloud and realize the cloud’s business value, speed, cost, talent and innovation benefits.