As with many things, when it comes to cloud compliance, prevention is far better than a cure.
With cybercrime up 67% over the last five years, and the annual cost of cybercrime up 72% over that same time period, organizations need to ensure that security and compliance are top priorities as they continue to move to and operate within a hybrid cloud environment. Plus, any data breach can result in damage to your reputation, and a negative impact when it comes to maintaining the trust of your customers.
Here are three things you need to know about cloud compliance and how you can ensure that your organization is protected.
#1 – Compliance Doesn’t Exist in a Silo
Whether you’re a government body, a healthcare organization, a FinTech company, or a business that processes customer payments, you’ve got regulations to adhere to that protect your data and ensure that you’re handling sensitive information properly and securely.
To properly meet these regulations, especially for those operating in a hybrid cloud environment, compliance can’t be thought of as a stand-alone concept. It can’t be handled or solved by a person, a process, or a technology on its own. For organizations to achieve and maintain cloud compliance, all three of those elements –– people, processes, and technology –– must work hand in hand.
Ensure your workforce is trained –– and retrained –– on compliance measures, that you have the right processes and governance in place, and that you are using the right technology to keep your security posture where it needs to be.
Not sure if your cloud compliance measures are where they need to be? Work with a managed cloud expert that helps organizations ensure their environment is secure and compliant by design.
#2 – Compliance is an Ongoing Effort
Meeting cloud compliance is not a “set it and forget” effort. It needs to be constantly maintained, tested, and attended to. With a wide variety of regulations that differ by industry, including PCI, HIPAA, PIPEDA and others, how data is handled and stored might vary.
To ensure that your organization is meeting compliance in the cloud, consider managed SIEM (security information and event management) tools to help you take a closer look into your organization’s systems.
Carbon60’s Vulnerability Management and Penetration Testing services generate reports detailing the effectiveness of security posture relative to regulations. It then shows areas that need to be improved and hardened to ensure you meet your requirements for cloud compliance.
#3 – Compliance is More than a Requirement — It’s a Selling Point
Whether your industry needs to comply with HIPAA, PIPEDA, PCI-DSS, OSFI, SOC2, or any other vertical or company-specific compliance regulation, your reputation, and your ability to operate effectively relies on strict adherence.
When it comes to a breach in compliance, the old saying that “there’s no bad press” simply doesn’t apply. Being identified as a company that’s not meeting cloud compliance can cast a negative shadow over the entire organization quickly, and can be hard to rebound from, both financially and from a reputation standpoint. However, the ability to maintain strict compliance, and successfully get through SOC audits can be a strong selling point for current and potential customers.
Find a managed service provider that can help you complete SOC audits, and maintain PCI-DSS compliance, HIPAA and various other compliance requirements on both public and private cloud platforms in order to succeed in keeping and winning new clients.
Keeping cloud compliance is critical, as regulations evolve, technology changes, and scrutiny on breaches becomes even more magnified. Take measures now to ensure your organization remains compliant.
You’re not only protecting your clients, you’re protecting yourself.
Ready to get started? Learn more about Carbon60’s Secure & Compliant by Design approach.
Carbon60 is an MSP dedicated to helping businesses maximize the performance and security of their core application infrastructure with an agnostic cloud approach using public and hosted private clouds. A partner with both Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure along with our own cloud platforms, we have the experience and the expertise to support organizations wherever they might be on their cloud journey.