Customers struggling with cloud security

With research coming out of MSP Day indicating that the main catalyst for customers turning to a managed service provider being a lack of in-house skills there are clearly opportunities for skilled partners.

One of the key areas where skills have been a headache is on the security front and Claranet has added more evidence of the problems on that front revealing that half of UK firms do not have the in-house ability to protect data in the cloud.

The research from Claranet not only found that skilled staff were in short supply but customers were also wrestling with struggling to understand how the cloud was impacting overall IT security.

“Businesses that have not engaged with cloud in some way are now few and far between, with hyperscalers having established a dominant position in the cloud market. Organisations are making significant progress with planning and carrying out these migrations, but our research has shown that there’s a very real danger of security being left behind as part of this process," said Sumit Siddarth, director at Claranet Cyber Security.

The idea that users have not fully grasped the security implications of adopting public cloud services is not a fresh concept but one that continues to cause problems for customers.

“The self-provisioning aspects of public cloud are beneficial in many ways, but they can also lure businesses into a false sense of security. The big hyperscalers have a lot of sensible defaults to help guard against threats, but if internal IT teams without the requisite skills create these environments themselves, mistakes can still occur," added Siddarth.

The answer does involve the channel with customers being advised to look to external experts to gain access to the knowledge that is lacking in-house.

“Migrating to cloud is often a complex process, so it’s important to invest a lot of manpower in it. However, there should be no excuse for neglecting security considerations, especially given the current threat landscape and the fact that hackers are seeing cloud as an increasingly lucrative target. Working with partners can be hugely advantageous here, as they can bring the added expertise needed to work through the more complex aspects of secure cloud migration, such as developing infrastructure as code to guard against mistakes being made," he said.

The Evolving Landscape of the MSP Business report issued yesterday found that customers struggling with a lack of in-house skills was now the main catalyst for turning to an MSP for support with 69% of partners reporting that as the driver, followed closely by cloud migration.