It’s easy to lose track of all the high-profile security leaks that have roiled the Web in the last year. The Sony hack seemed catastrophic, a true worst-case scenario for a large corporation. And then came the Ashley Madison hack, which exposed the private data of an estimated 38 million users, ruining lives and sparking a sure-to-be-huge class action lawsuit. These hacks have many managers and executives rightfully worried about their cloud systems, and are one reason hybrid cloud services have become so popular.
In 2015, no one disputes that the cloud is the future of IT and data storage, with 48% of enterprise respondents in a recent survey saying they planned to adopt hybrid cloud systems in the coming years. But not everyone has a clear idea of what exactly the “hybrid cloud” really means. In short, if a company or government agency utilizes both the public cloud and their own private cloud, they’re using hybrid services.
So why not just use one or the other? The public cloud is often more cost-effective than a private system, so many organizations take advantage of cloud brokerage services to acquire space on the public cloud. By utilizing cloud brokerage services, large amounts of data and IT operations can be moved off-site, often saving money in the process.
But because many countries have strict regulations on the storage of customer information and private data, many companies and government departments rely on private cloud systems for highly sensitive information. In fact, the growing market for enterprise and government cloud security services is expected to reach upwards of $8.7 billion by 2019.
Although cloud broker services can help companies migrate their IT operations to the cloud, by law those companies are still liable for customer and consumer information. That’s another reason why cloud security has been dominating headlines so much in 2015. Fortunately, in addition to security cloud systems, cloud brokerage services can also provide cloud security assessments to help safeguard your network.