[ This article was originally published here ]
Dependence on the cloud in the modern era is no secret. The growth in cloud applications for both professional and personal use has proved unrelenting as critical applications and services are made solely available through cloud access.
In a press release, a 20.4% increase in end-user spend on cloud applications in 2022, and forecasts another 20% growth in 2023. As spend increases, so does availability, creating an ongoing chicken-and-egg dynamic that will only strengthen the need for robust security measures.
The Importance of Cloud Security
Despite its ubiquity, cloud adoption remains a point of concern for many organizations. Moving from on prem to cloud-based applications often brings a sense of fear or lack of control, generating anxiety particularly for highly risk-averse individuals. While these concerns are not unfounded, they should be leveraged for clarity and planning rather than resistance.
As the implementation of SaaS and other cloud products grows, so too does the ingenuity of cybercriminals. Opportunistic hackers are developing new means of breaching security and stealing data, and organizations need to invest in a strategy to stay ahead of these attempts.
The Role of Teamwork
A strategy is only as strong as the team in charge of it. After all, you can devise the most airtight security measures, but your organization will never be truly secure without experts to implement, manage and maintain your approach.
A reported 95% of security professionals polled are concerned about cloud security. That means organizations should have little issue getting IT and security team members on board. Security teams are challenged not with understanding the value of cloud security, but with understanding what needs to be protected, and then devising a framework to address security issues.
Rather than letting these responsibilities rest on the shoulders of one or a small few, teamwork will enable greater coverage and reliability in cloud security. As John J. Murphy, author of Pulling Together: 10 Rules for High-Performance Teamwork states: “Each individual has unique gifts, and talents and skills. When we bring them to the table and share them for a common purpose, it can give companies a competitive advantage.” Not only will a team support one another, but as individuals bring their unique perspectives they will be able to devise a more comprehensive cybersecurity strategy.
Other benefits to teamwork include:
Productivity
Cohesive teams are more productive, and that affects more than a company’s bottom line. Productive teams are more connected to their work and motivated, increasing emotional well-being and engagement. Happy employees are up to 20% more productive, creating a positive cycle for all involved.
Creativity
Harmonious teamwork depends on great communication. By focusing on teamwork, individuals meet to share ideas, suggestions, analysis, and more, fostering an environment of brainstorming and innovation. When many different perspectives come together, new and creative ideas are born.
Opportunity
There are more opportunities available than those for productivity and creativity. Working together as a team helps each individual level up, building on their skillsets and opening doors for professional development.
Key Players
The structure of cybersecurity teams will vary by organization. Rather than giving you a map to follow for building your team, we’ll instead highlight the objectives and skills required, to help find the key players in a successful security unit.
Some of the key responsibilities include:
- Storing and protecting business data
- Optimizing cloud architectures to run applications
- Designing high-availability workloads
- Managing and optimizing utilization and costs of cloud products
- Establishing policies and procedures to configure and secure cloud apps and security
This is not an exhaustive list, of course, but gives some indication of the breadth of team responsibilities.
Team Building Challenges
With the importance of building the “right” team for the job, it’s no wonder many organizations find creating a security team to be a difficult task. More than a matter of the alchemy of personality types, there are fundamental challenges in the modern era.
As the Covid-19 pandemic drastically changed the workforce landscape, many organizations are finding employees with disparate needs and expectations. Remote and hybrid models are a big shift in mindset and approach for most businesses, and mindsets around collaboration are still catching up.
More than that, there is a widespread lack of candidates in the cybersecurity arena. Candidates are difficult to find, and many security managers struggle to find candidates that match their qualification requirements.
Strong Security Requires a Strong Team
If cybersecurity is not front of mind for your organization in the modern era, it should be. Organizations should not wait until their data or networks are compromised and then scramble in an attempt to make up for lost time in executing a security strategy.
Truly security-minded organizations see the value not only in tools and processes, but in leveraging teamwork and a strong department to spearhead these initiatives.
Cloud security and teamwork go hand-in-hand, and there is a lot more you should know in order to approach your security strategy with success. In our , we go into more detail on building a team and strong qualities to look for in your team members. If you have a cloud security team that isn’t working as cohesively as you would like, all is not lost. We also put together some tips to foster better teamwork in your existing structure so that both your organization and its employees can thrive.
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