Cloud Security and Digital Transformation, the Top Priority for Enterprises as Pandemic Drags On

In the wake of Coronavirus, and for people’s safety, we stayed at home and tried to continue business operations, client meetings, etc from home only. The digital transformation led business easily enables working from home model. Enterprises in the Asia Pacific and Middle-East are still focusing on enhancing digital transformation and cloud security.

As per a Survey of 2064 business and ITDMs across the Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa (AMEA), they are followed by security threats and vulnerability research (62%), and risk and compliance (49%). The survey is a precursor to Trend Micro’s CLOUDSEC 2020 conference, taking place from November 24 to November 26, 2020.

The outcomes are unsurprising to an extent, given how many businesses have expedited their digital transformation journey and migration to the cloud, while the COVID-19 continues to wield debilitating impact over workplace collaboration, productivity, and the bottom line across many industries. To survive is to innovate and take up new technologies.

The respondents also recognize each other when it comes to the most significant pain points. The survey reveals that they most often grapple with the inability to detect and respond to advanced security threats (32%), which have seen a sharp increase since the pandemic started in the first quarter of the year; and the perennial shortage of security skills (32%), as cybercrimes become more sophisticated and security operations, more complex.

Other common challenges include getting cloud security automation and configuration right (31%); asking for more budget for cybersecurity (28%); obtaining complete visibility of threat vectors across the entire organization (26%); and constantly having to justify cybersecurity investment (25%).

When it comes to acquiring hands-on experiences, respondents are most looking forward to learning about automated security and compliance posture remediation (68%), indicating that many of them are already operating in the cloud environment and are dealing with misconfiguration-led cybersecurity issues. As a matter of fact, misconfigurations in the cloud are the primary cause for cloud-based cyberattacks.

Respondents are also interested in tackling real-life scenarios that pertain to web application protection and serverless security (63%), a sign that many of them are further along the cloud journey. The third most sought-after hands-on topic revolves around deploying network-based virtual patches and intrusion prevention systems (IPS) (52%), showing that system vulnerabilities continue to be a major headache for security teams across the board.

“2020 is a year of profound challenges for enterprises. But on the bright side, companies are realizing their digital potential,” said Dhanya Thakkar, senior vice president, Trend Micro, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. “At this year’s CLOUDSEC, we want to celebrate these companies and their successful effort in digitally transforming themselves. The tech industry is one of the few that have not faltered under the weight of the pandemic. It goes to show the importance of technology on business operations.”

This is the tenth anniversary of the CLOUDSEC conference and this time it will be virtual. Across three full days, the event will welcome keynote speakers from industry-defining companies including Amazon Web Services (AWS), DXC Technology, Dyson, IAG, IBM, IDC, Infosys, IKEA, LINE, Lotte, Proficio, Snyk, a mysterious ethical hacker, and a prominent UAE bank.

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