First, let’s understand what is a cloud?

Cloud computing is the delivery of services via the internet. The various resources it uses are networking, data storage, software, and databases. It has become a popular choice of almost all sized businesses be it small, mid-sized or the large enterprises. The technology helps businesses in saving costs, improve performance and accelerate the speed.

For this reason, it has become essential to have a proper cloud security service.

Organizations are vigorously looking into this, as much of the crucial and sensitive information are also stored in the cloud. The leakage of any such information could be disastrous for an organization.

Cloud security helps in securing such data with specific procedures and policies. In this, the security measures are implemented for protecting the data stored on the cloud aligned with the regulatory compliance. It ensures that the cloud environments are secured from the unauthorized access, malware, and other risks.

Cloud security provides many benefits to the organization:

• Reduces the administration: With the implementation of cloud security, you can eliminate the manual security configurations. It has been observed that the manual security configurations take a heavy toll on the resources. With the help of cloud security, an organization can have the complete security administration at a single place. It thus improves the efficiency.

• Reliability: With the right cloud security measures, the users have the advantage of accessing the data from anywhere across the world and that too safely.
• Security that is centralized: A security process that is centralized is beneficial for organizations. It centralizes the protection and also ensures the data security. The process safeguards the data with all the security measures.

The challenges of cloud security are:

• Data cloud visibility: The majority of the cloud services does not get accessed in the organization. It thus raises the challenge for the IT team as they need to have a complete view of the data accessed by the user.
• The configuration process: The configuration of cloud service is very crucial. Any mis-configuration might pave the path for the data breach. It can help the hacker to access the highly confidential data for misuse. Thus, it is necessary to have the right configuration process in place.
  It has been found that many times the security administrator might overlook the majority of the configurations in the cloud security services, leading to exposure of sensitive data.

Some of the best cloud computing security practices are:

• Identity and access management: It is necessary to leverage the authentication process with the identity management. Not only would it help the user to have access to the data and applications, but also would improve the security process. It should be ensured that the privileged access is recorded and audited.

• Vulnerability management: This practice helps to perform the vulnerability scan. It helps to identify the vulnerabilities in the IT assets, for taking the right action.

• Encryption: It has be ensured that the cloud data is encrypted. An encrypted message restricts the unauthorized user from deciphering the data.

• Right monitoring and reporting: Implementing the monitoring process of user activity, helps to have a precise and complete picture of the happening in the environment.
  

• Enabling the control over password: There should be a process for not allowing the shared use of the password. The passwords should be combined with the other systems. Password management is an essential process in the cloud security practice.
• Helping in the recovery process: As an organization, you have to be aware of the recovery policies. It has to be seen that the recovery policy of your cloud vendor is aligned with the standards of your organization.
• Performing the regular tests: There are high chances a security risk can arise from anywhere in the cloud infrastructure. These challenges need to be effectively resolved. So, before only regular penetration tests have to be executed for finding these risks and resolving it at that time.

Conclusion:

Cloud security enhances the security of the data. In the current scenario where organizations have seen major breach data breaches, it has become essential to have adequate cloud security measures. With the right implementation, it would amplify the productivity of employees, thus leading to better business results.