Over the past couple of years, cloud usage has witnessed a significant rise. According to renowned research institutions, the global cloud computing network is expected to grow from $371.4 billion in 2020 to about USD 832.1 billion in 2025. This rise can be attributed to the fact that more and more organizations are realizing how beneficial the cloud is.
As much as a number of organizations are nowadays making use of the cloud, a good number of them are not always cloud compliant. Cloud compliance can be defined as the principle that cloud-delivered systems must be compliant with the standards their customers require. It can also be defined as the art and science of complying with regulatory standards of cloud usage in accordance with industry guidelines and local, national, and international laws.
Most Common Cloud Compliance Challenges
If you’re a businessman, it’s worth noting that as your business expands, you’re bound to witness an increase in the number of rules you’ve got to follow. You’ll also likely witness an increase in the number of threats you’ve got to deal with. Understandably, you’ll feel like piecing together a compliance initiative is a crushing task. However, as compliance issues can lead to your organization’s downfall, it’s essential that you keep clear of them. If you’re unsure of what compliance issues you’re likely to face, here are some of the common ones that you need to be aware of.
Difficulty Incorporating Multiple Compliance Regimes
Multinational organizations can be easily subject to more rules than organizations that only operate in a single country. Because of this, such organizations usually find it hard to figure out which product or service is governed by which law. When an organization fails to figure out how the different laws govern its products/services, they are bound to face compliance issues. With this in mind, it’s clear that the more your business expands, the more you need to familiarize yourself with different markets’ compliance laws.
Understanding Shared Responsibility
Many organizations often assume that once their data is in the cloud, it’s the responsibility of their vendors to store the data safely. However, this is far from the truth. Even though cloud services providers often offer compliance and security features, it’s crucial that you understand that data protection and compliance are ultimately your responsibility. As such, if your service provider-of-choice leaks your customers’ private data, your organization is likely to be the one on the hook. To avoid all the compliance issues that a leak may bring about, it’s critical that before you settle on a given vendor, you ensure that it’s trustworthy.
Inadequate Compliance Implementation
Studies by renowned survey institutions indicate that four out of five companies usually fail to implement compliance fully. This means that failing to implement compliance fully is far more common than succeeding. This is primarily because many organizations usually see compliance as a one-off exercise. However, compliance is difficult, costly, and tiring exercise which needs commitment and time. If you fail to put in the time, commitment, and money that’s required, we assure you you’ll be plagued with compliance issues.
Increased Cost Management by The Managers of CIOs
It is common knowledge that to ensure your organization isn’t breaching any cloud compliance regulations, you need to hire experienced compliance staff. The more your business expands, the more staff you’ll need. As hiring compliance staff is usually costly, most organization managers usually decide not to hire them. Given that they lack the professional input that experienced compliance staff possesses, more often than not, they usually find themselves in violation of plenty of rules. To avoid suffering such a fate, as costly as hiring compliance staff is, it’s in your best interest to hire them.
Poor DLP
Most companies often use strong passwords, encryption, and other modern security tools to keep cyber threats out. However, they normally do not do much to protect their data in case the invaders do get in. Every year, cyber terrorists get more sophisticated in their attack techniques. If a third, unknown party gains access to your organization’s data, it becomes a compliance issue. To prevent this, it’s essential that you make sure your company has Data Loss Prevention tools. Data Loss Prevention, commonly referred to as DLP, can help you minimize potential losses by limiting access to sensitive documents. The soon you get DLP, the better.
Inadequate Data Encryption
Although data encryption is one of the best compliance tools globally, most organizations fear encrypting their data. This is because they normally believe that by doing so, they’ll make their databases unreadable. In the real sense, if organizations tag their encrypted files, they can easily access the information without compromising data security.
Consequences of Compliance Issues
To ensure that their citizens’ private data remains secure, several nations have rolled out a number of regulations. Non-compliance to these regulations is usually costly. Listed below are some of the heftiest consequences you may face if you violate the compliance rules.
Business Disruption
If your organization is found to violate some cloud compliance regulations, you may be forced to pause your operations. The regulatory authority may decide that you don’t continue with your business until you comply with all the regulations.
Total Business Closure
If the regulatory authority finds you to be in serious violation of its cloud compliance rules, it may decide to shut down your organization completely. As there’s nothing as depressing as having to close down your company, it’s critical that you remain on the good side of the cloud compliance laws.
Loss of Revenue and Productivity
Every day a business isn’t in operation, it loses a lot of revenue. Given that regulatory authorities have the power to order your business to halt its operations, it’s critical that you don’t have any compliance issues.
Breach of Public Trust
Public trust is very important. Without public trust, your business is likely to fail. If your company is plagued with compliance issues, you’re bound to lose a majority of public trust. Since this is bad for business, you need to maintain compliance.
