CloudData CenterUncategorized

Understanding the Risks of Cloud Migration

Understanding the Risks of Cloud Migration and Security Measures to Mitigate Them

Thanks to our experts at Protected Harbor, we’ve released a new infographic that can help your organization or business to reduce your cloud migration security risks. This cloud migration risk assessment checklist = includes key security tips and advice to help you make the right cloud migration decisions. Download it now to learn more! And don’t forget to visit our blog for more tips and advice.

As your organization evaluates cloud migration, it’s critical to understand the security challenges in cloud computing. Security is a top concern for many businesses, so before you move your company’s data and services to the cloud, you must understand how to mitigate any potential risk. Understanding data protection during cloud migration is essential for an effective migration strategy. The first step in this process is understanding the potential risks of migrating your organization to the cloud.

After all, not every business can trust third parties with its data. But with the proper security measures in place, moving to a cloud platform can benefit almost any business.

Download our infographic to understand how to reduce cloud migration security risks in a quick overview, and continue reading the blog for more information.

What Is Cloud Migration?

Cloud migration is the process of moving an organization’s data, applications, and other business elements from on-premises data centers to cloud computing services. Several types of cloud computing are available, including public cloud, private cloud, and hybrid cloud, each with its own benefits and challenges. Cloud migration requires careful planning and execution to ensure that sensitive information remains secure and protected from data breaches.

Moving apps, data, and other digital assets from an on-premises data center to the cloud is also cloud migration. These may be programs that have been specially created for the organizations or ones that they have licensed from a different vendor. There are various methods for moving to the cloud, including:

“Lift and shift” refer to moving apps as-is.
Modifying applications slightly to facilitate their cloud migration
Application rebuilding or remodeling to make them more suitable for a cloud environment
Changing from legacy applications that don’t support the cloud to new ones that cloud vendors offer.
“Cloud-native development” refers to the process of creating new cloud-based apps.

Check Out Infographic

What is CSPM?

Cloud security posture management (CSPM) is critical to cloud migration strategies. It involves assessing and managing the security posture of an organization’s cloud infrastructures, including threat detection and data masking. CSPM helps organizations ensure their cloud resources are secure, compliant, and operating under the appropriate security controls.

One of the main benefits of cloud migration is the ability to take advantage of the scalability and flexibility of cloud computing services. Cloud resources can be easily scaled up or down as needed, allowing organizations to quickly respond to changing business needs. However, migrating to the cloud can also pose security challenges in cloud computing, such as the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access to sensitive information.

To mitigate these risks, organizations should carefully consider their cloud migration strategies and follow cloud migration best practices, take steps to ensure that their cloud infrastructures are secure and compliant with applicable regulations. This can include implementing access controls, monitoring for threats, and regularly reviewing and updating security policies and procedures. By taking a proactive approach to cloud security, organizations can enjoy the benefits of cloud computing while minimizing the risk of data breaches and other security threats.

What are the Key Benefits of Cloud Migration?

The advantages of the cloud, which include hosting applications and data in a highly effective IT environment that can increase factors like cost, performance, and security, are the overarching goal of most cloud migrations.

Elastic scalability, a need to reduce costs or convert from a capital expenditure to an operating expenses model, and a requirement for new technologies, services, or features only available in a cloud environment are essential drivers for cloud migration.

The flexibility of corporate IT teams to deliver new services and expand the company to meet changing business requirements is enhanced by cloud computing, which is maybe even more significant.

Security Risks of Cloud Migration

Because cloud migration is susceptible to several attacks, careful planning is required. Sensitive data is exchanged during migration, leaving it open to attack. Additionally, attackers may obtain access to unsecured development, test, or production environments at different points in a migration project.

Plan your cloud migration efforts in advance of the following dangers:

Application Programming Interface (API) vulnerabilities: APIs serve as communication routes between environments. At every step of the cloud migration process, APIs must be protected.

Blind spots: Using the cloud requires giving up some operational control. Before migrating, check the security your cloud provider offers and how to enhance it with supplemental third-party security solutions.

Compliance requirements: Verify that your intended cloud environment complies with the necessary standards. This comprises the organization’s protocols for ensuring the security of cloud workloads, data, and access, as well as compliance certifications issued by the cloud provider. As part of the standards for compliance, all of these may be audited and will be.

Unchecked Growth: Moving to the cloud is a continuous process. The company will probably add more resources, use new cloud services, and add more apps after moving applications to the cloud. Once SaaS apps are up and operating in the cloud, it is normal to begin employing more SaaS applications. A significant operational problem exists in securing these new services and applications effectively.

Data loss: Moving to the cloud requires the transfer of data. If there are issues with the migration process, it is crucial to ensure that data is backed up. With rigorous key management, all data is transferred across encrypted channels.

Check Out Infographic

5 Ways to Mitigate Cloud Migration Security Risks

Here are a few cloud security best practices that can help improve security during and after cloud migrations:

Develop a Plan– Planning before migration and executing successfully is essential. Use automated tools and optimization to outline the expertise, resources, and tooling you need to start.
Start Small- To reduce the fear and accelerate cloud adoption, start with an automatic workload lift and shift over in small portions.
Leverage SaaS Adoption– Utilize your business units to promote cloud adoption by investing in Software-as-a-Service.
Set Security Standards– Develop baseline security standards by collaborating with your governance team.
Use Managed Services- Organizations should monitor their cloud security posture from the control plan to asset configuration. They can partner with a Managed Services Provider for efficient migration.

Contact Us

Conclusion

Migrating to the cloud can be a great way to boost your company’s productivity and scalability. But it’s essential to understand the security risks first. The best way to mitigate these risks is to work with a reputable cloud provider committed to data security.

Having the right security practices in place for your team is also important. With the proper security measures, you can enjoy all the benefits of migrating to the cloud. That’s why we have created an infographic to help you out. Download today and get started with your cloud migration.

July 27, 2022 0 Comments by Editor

Tech Support

Typical errors made by businesses while moving to the cloud.

Common mistakes organizations make while migrating to the cloud.

mistakes while migrating to the cloud Cloud service providers like AWS, Google, and Microsoft Azure allow organizations to host their data effortlessly without a need for specialized hardware. Many small and large organizations are rapidly moving to the cloud from traditional hardware IT infrastructure. Cloud services provide the benefit of just paying for the resources you actually use, which save you from additional cost.

Cloud environments are generally reliable, scalable, and highly available, prompting both start-ups and enterprise-level businesses to take advantage of migrating to the cloud.

“The sun always shines above the clouds.” But what’s missing in this quote is that beneath the cloud, there are often torrential downpours, high winds, and lightning. The same is the case with cloud computing. However, cloud computing provides a lot of benefits, there are some pitfalls as well.

This guide has compiled organizations’ common mistakes while migrating to the cloud. Avoid these common mistakes to ensure a smooth transition to the cloud that showers your organization with benefits.

1. Migrating to the cloud without governance and a planning strategy

It’s simple to provision resources in the cloud, but there are unplanned policy, cost, and security problems that can be incurred. Here planning and governance are essential. A related mistake IT managers make is that they do not understand who within the organization is responsible for a specific cloud-related task, such as data backups, security, and business continuity.

Making a shift to a cloud platform with proper planning and governance can significantly level up your organization’s productivity and eliminate the infrastructure-related roadblocks. Moreover, you can get the highest return on investment with a cloud migration while starting with clearly defined business objectives, governance, and a planning strategy.

2. Migrating all data at once

You have assessed the cost and benefit, run tests to ensure your applications are correctly working, and are ready to shift to the cloud. You may want to migrate all of your data to the cloud at once to speed up the process, but it can cost you more downtime in the long run.

When you migrate to the cloud, you are more likely to experience some issues. Therefore, if you shift all data at once and a problem occurs, you can lose your business-critical or sensitive data. To avoid this situation, execute your cloud migration in steps. Start with the test or non-essential data and then proceed with the critical data.

3. Not designing for failure

Being a pessimist can put you at risk while migrating to the cloud. As the traditional IT infrastructure, cloud servers are also prone to downtime. In this case, the best workaround is to design for failure. Amazon mentioned that “there is a need to design for failure in its cloud architecture best practices, and if you do so, nothing can defeat you.” Designing for failure includes setting up for safety to ensure that any outage that occurs results in minimal damage to the company.

I am designing a cloud infrastructure by keeping failure and downtime in mind, incorporating a fault-tolerant cloud-optimized architecture. The recovery strategies should be in-built into the design to ensure minimal damage and optimal output even when the cloud architecture faces downtime.

4. Neglecting security aspects

However, cloud service providers offer a security layer, but it is prone to security threats if the application has flaws. Any potential risk can cost you a lot if your IT infrastructure has flaws while migrating to the cloud. It is even more critical while dealing with sensitive data, such as healthcare or financial data.

The implications of attack in the case of financial data are severe. Potential security risks include account hijacking, data breaches, abuse of information, and unauthorized access. Data encryption and robust security testing are a must while migrating data to the cloud. Neglecting cloud security can put an organization to severe damage. It is always recommended to go through the Service Level Agreement (SLA) that you sign with the cloud provider.

5. Not controlling cost and prioritizing workloads

Once you see the power of cloud computing, it can stimulate enthusiasm for cloud-based projects. But if you start the process by defining use cases and understanding the cost modeling, it will help you keep track of cloud computing costs. Consider a common scenario_ when organizations use cloud services, they sometimes migrate large data sets or non-priority workloads to the cloud that might be better handled in another way.

As the data scales, the cloud cost exceeds it, and added expenses can obscure the financial benefit offered by the cloud. Having a robust understanding of what you want to achieve from a business point of view and developing a cost-based assessment will ensure that you get the cloud benefits.

6. Inadequate understanding of organization infrastructure and networks

It is essential for organizations to thoroughly understand their assets and workflow before migrating to the cloud. Organizations have inadequate knowledge of how their systems and data need to work together. As a result, they fail to create a complete map of their network and infrastructure and deliver failure.

Each cloud service provider offers unique attributes. Organizations can’t compare these providers when they do not fully understand what they need in a provider. Moreover, when organizations move their data to the cloud without proper understanding, it can cause breaks in their IT infrastructure that negatively impact consumers.

7. Not having an exit strategy

An exit strategy outlines meditations regarding extracting your applications from a cloud whenever required. Many organizations think an exit strategy is unnecessary as they don’t expect to get back from the cloud. However, it’s essential to have an exit strategy, even if you never use it. It also needs to be considered for changing service providers, not just bringing workloads back on-premises.

Conclusion

Organizations need to consider all mentioned aspects while migrating to the cloud. Taking these considerations into account before migration can help organizations reduce potential risks. Cloud migration is a complicated process that can benefit from professionals’ assistance. Help your organization avoid these mistakes by working with experienced partners.

Cloud migration is a complicated process, and disregarding any piece or feature can jeopardize the migration’s success. Protected Harbor guarantees 99.99 percent uptime with a remote tech team available 24×7, remote desktop, complete cybersecurity, and more. With the appropriate mix of business processes, technology, and people, you’ll be well on your way to reaping the benefits of cloud computing that so many businesses are currently reaping. Just make sure you’re aware of the pitfalls and typical blunders we’ve discussed that can sabotage your cloud migration. Contact us today to migrate to the cloud.

April 27, 2022 0 Comments by Editor