The Top 5 Cloud Security Predictions for 2022

New threats, new apps, new players – but data plays the biggest role in shaping the future.

By Amit Shaked, CEO, Laminar

2021 Attacks Set New Records

Looking back, 2021 had its fair share of cybersecurity incidents. Take for example the Colonial Pipeline breach, where the U.S. fuel supply was at risk of coming to a grinding halt. A ransom of $2.3 million in Bitcoin was paid to avoid catastrophe and continue business operations.

You can likely expect a continued rise in attacks and new methods of targeting in 2022. However, the one element to the advancement of security measures making a huge difference next year is data —  cloud data.

According to Techjury, on average, every human created at least 1.7 MB of data per second in 2020. Per second, think about that. Data is the critical element in every environment and having a plan to safeguard yours is paramount. The democratization of data means putting it in the hands of more users and data scientists who can quickly create customer value. What better place to do this than the cloud?  However as developers now have extreme flexibility and power to do what they want in the cloud, data protection teams have fallen behind.

Given the rise in cyber-attacks, the ubiquity of cloud computing, and the ever-increasing production of data, here are our top five cloud security predictions for 2022.

The Top 5 Cloud Security Predictions

1- Increased Investment will Lead to Better Cloud Security

Each and every year we see increased investments in cloud security.

According to Gartner, cloud security is the fastest growing security segment, projected to increase 41.2% between 2020 and 2021, reaching nearly $1 billion.

What does all of this mean? Better cloud security.

Data protection is the highest priority for many organizations, especially since much of the data lives in the cloud. Consumers and businesses expect protection, and they will weigh in with their dollars. It’s essential for organizations to continue to invest in data protection in order to reach a better outcome.

2 – Cloud Data Protection Will Make Strides to Keep up With Data Democratization

Every organization, no matter how big or small, is changing the way they operate through digital technology. The majority of these changes involve moving processes and data to the cloud and making data accessible to everyone in the organization. This is data democratization.

2022 will see cloud data protection begin to keep pace with data democratization.

Data is the new currency. It’s the critical factor in making informed business decisions and delivering personalized experiences that consumers are not only anticipating but expecting.

Protecting and monitoring your data is crucial to survival, but in order to have proper defenses, organizations must have a baseline understanding of their data.

IT leaders should know the answers to five very important questions:

1. Where is my data?
2. Who has access?
3. What’s the security posture?
4. Who owns the data?
5. Where is my data going?

One sensitive breach can bring a company to its knees. So as more investments are made in the digital transformation, more investments are needed in data protection.

3- Cloud-Native Security Tools Will Become Mainstream

As more data is moved to the cloud, more workloads, processes and solutions are being natively built and run there.

Cloud-native applications are run and hosted in the cloud, and are designed to capitalize on the inherent characteristics of a cloud computing software delivery model.

Security solutions built for the cloud, in the cloud, aren’t totally mainstream yet, but are growing much faster than their legacy counterparts. In 2022, we’ll see many more of them arise and mature.

4 – Security Teams Will Move from Gatekeepers to Enablers

It’s the responsibility of the security team to ensure every process follows strict security protocols, so historically, they are viewed as a barrier to progress. 2022 is going to see a change in that pattern, as security teams move from being the gatekeepers to the enablers.

Why is this? Because more applications are being built in the cloud, as opposed to on-premises.

Cloud application developers don’t have as many restrictions, and don’t have to wait on multiple stakeholders to move to the next phase. At the same time, security teams are deploying cloud-native solutions that continuously monitor and enforce policies, enabling a “trust but verify” stance. This way, developers are not hindered and security teams can move at the speed of the cloud.

So to continue digital transformation yet stay secure, the once-restricting gatekeepers will harness the power of cloud development and become the enablers.

5 – Best of Breed Tools Will Continue to Emerge, not Consolidate…Yet

According to The Cyber Research Databank, there are more than 3,500 cybersecurity vendors in the market.

If you’re a security leader, you’re probably bombarded with offers for the next best solution. You may wish there was one tool that served as a one-stop-shop for all of the features and capabilities you need, but we’re not quite there yet.

Consolidation is happening, but we think vendor proliferation will continue in 2022.

Why is that?

Let’s take COVID-19 as an example. Think of the virus as a new breach. When that breach hit, people scrambled to build the defenses to battle it. You developed a vaccine and are feeling good, but then the Delta variant pops up, and you scramble again. Hoping to quell that variant, suddenly Omicron arises. On it goes. How many variants will appear before we feel we’ve addressed every threat? There is no way to tell, so you keep building defenses to stay safe.

The security world is similar. Each year we see new threats arise and we build the tools to combat them. Before these breaches slow down, there will continue to be a proliferation of new tools in the market.

The Year that Data Matters More

Data truly is the key element for business survival and, as a result, it’s also the element you need to protect the most. It is the new business currency and something everyone benefits from when harnessed securely.

In this cloud-first world, where digital transformation is happening fast and complexity is high, traditional methods are falling away. The ability to discover, classify, and categorize all the data within your public cloud environment is a necessity to stay safe and nimble.

About the Author

Amit Shaked, CEO, Laminar.  He is also the Founder of Laminar which started in 2020.

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