Cloud compliance simply means that a business’ cloud-delivered system has to be compliant with the standards required by the end users or customers.
Cloud technology remains the linchpin of today’s accelerated digital transformation strategies in the Asia-Pacific region. With the introduction of new technologies like generative AI, legacy infrastructure becomes unsustainable in a world driven by innovation. Consequently, most companies in the region opt for multi-cloud infrastructure, drawn by its AI and ML capabilities, flexibility, high availability, and cost optimisation.
However, when an organisation stores data across multiple cloud locations, it must ensure cloud compliance with local and international norms. This necessitates extensive planning and effort to create a multi-cloud infrastructure and maintain compliance, especially when cloud infrastructure is integrated with on-premises resources to run your business operations.
Deep planning and top-class execution skills needed for multi-cloud
Constructing a cloud infrastructure that suits your requirements is challenging. The challenges involved encompass deployment complexities, necessary integrations, and the need to adhere to local cloud compliance standards. At the same time, although public cloud services offer a certain level of security, they might pose risks as well. Organisations must effectively manage these risks and understand their risk appetite to prevent business disruptions that can adversely affect their partners and customers, or even prompt regulatory action.
Each cloud provider has its own security policies and procedures, which need to align with regulations in different jurisdictions. Managing the compliance and security of a multi-cloud environment becomes a major challenge in these circumstances and it is further compounded when organisations must comply with various regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI-DSS.
A unified approach makes multi-cloud compliance more efficient
Amid these challenges, it’s important to know where your data resides and to quickly identify potential risks or threats from vulnerabilities in your multi-cloud environment. Unrecognised vulnerabilities lurking in your cloud infrastructure can become blind spots that can then be exploited by hackers. Thus, a unified view of risks and compliance policies is essential for maintaining the integrity of your multi-cloud infrastructure.
Managing multi-cloud compliance and security requires considerable resources. This includes not only dedicated personnel but also investment in specific tools and processes. Given the limited resources typically allocated for cloud security in the region, managing compliance in the face of constantly evolving threats and changing regulations is a major challenge.
Automating cloud security and compliance can facilitate round-the-clock visibility, security, and compliance, enhancing the efficiency of managing a multi-cloud infrastructure. A comprehensive multi-cloud security management plan, encompassing everything from identity and access management to incident response, is a basic necessity for ensuring compliance.
Engaging a cloud advisory and consulting services provider can help your organisation develop security guidelines using industry best practices while ensuring compliance across multiple cloud environments. Expert support rapidly addresses security issues, streamlines security management and compliance, and ensures strict adherence to cloud compliance guidelines. Moreover, such a partner can introduce a centralised and unified approach to cloud security and compliance management, even within budget constraints. A unified approach provides more control over multi-cloud compliance management processes and ensures consistent application of security and compliance policies across the multi-cloud environment.
Expert partners facilitate dynamic compliance in multi-cloud environments
Keeping compliance and security guidelines up-to-date is key to ensuring complete security and compliance in a multi-cloud environment. Many organisations in the region struggle to keep pace with evolving compliance regulations and security threats. In this context, partnering with a cloud consulting and advisory services provider ensures your compliance norms remain current.
A specialised managed services provider can alleviate your IT team’s workload by handling tasks like patch management, allowing them to focus on higher-value activities. This approach keeps your infrastructure updated and compliant, optimising the utilisation of your limited IT resources. Your compliance management is often only as good as the tools and processes that you deploy. A managed services provider can ensure that your organisation uses the right tools and defines the most appropriate processes for your environment.
Although many multi-cloud infrastructure management tools are available, selecting and interpreting the information provided by them and coming to the correct analysis requires expert insight. Ultimately, a managed services provider can harmonise your organisation’s regulatory compliance and security objectives with performance and cost goals, achieving the right balance needed to validate your business case. Find out more about our Managed Cloud Security Service or get in touch if you need help navigating the multi-cloud compliance.