It will come as no surprise that global spend on cloud technology is going to be much higher this year compared to previous years. Businesses globally have had to adapt to a world where remote working is more of a necessity than a flexible alternative, and things aren’t likely to change soon.

Cloud technology is an ideal for any business; the features available make operations scalable, easily accessible from multiple devices and much cheaper to run, as opposed to maintaining bulky physical infrastructure. With all this in mind, there’s a vital piece of the puzzle that companies could leave on the back burner – security.

Cloud security is just as important, if not more, than the cloud infrastructure a company invests in. You have to be sure that your company data is constantly backed up and protected from threats like hacking and data breaches.

Sometimes it might seem like security isn’t really an investment to worry about if you’re an SMB, but up to 80 percent of all businesses have reported some kind of data breach in the past 18 months. At a time where remote accessibility to an organisation’s data is most crucial for their staff, it appears that the conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have dramatically slowed down the growth of investment in security.

This growth figure is down nearly 6 percent on the original forecast by global research company Gartner. They originally predicted a rise of up to 9 percent back in December 2019. Since then, the forecast has darkened further, with Gartner only expecting cloud security investment to grow by 2-3 percent by the end of 2020.

Swedish based asset management company, Snow Software, deduced that more than three quarters of companies surveyed had increased their cloud infrastructure usage, mainly in the bigger providers such as Microsoft Azure, AWS (Amazon Web Services) and Slack. There was also a big uptick in cloud adoption, as well as migrations to cloud-based video calling/instant messaging platforms like Microsoft Teams.

For many SMBs, it appears that the investment into cloud infrastructure doesn’t mirror that of security. Perhaps this can be explained by how new this type of technology is to businesses still; they may not yet have considered security as part of their strategy.

Others may believe that security is already provided in the backup solutions that many public cloud servers offer, such as OneDrive or Dropbox. Sadly, for many organisations, this turns out to be a service that rarely meets their specific requirements.

 A cloud solution like Microsoft Azure enables businesses to incorporate all of the features of cloud – deployment of databases, complete remote services, and web apps from Windows or Linux models. Azure provides built-in encryption capabilities to protect sensitive data and personal information a company might need to protect.

If you are currently looking to invest in cloud, you’re going to need a service that provides a seamless and secure migration, which will protect your data with backup and encryption from the moment of deployment. You also need a solution that can cater to all areas of your operations, including communication, billing, sales and customer service.

Here at ITSB, we can offer expert advice and a free consultation to help you find the right cloud security for you; with ease of use and cost effectiveness as standard.