If you have recently switched your data to a cloud-based environment, you might have some questions about security. Namely, how much responsibility falls on your cloud provider? No matter what industry you’re in, security is of the utmost importance. With more businesses in the healthcare and financial services sector switching to cloud infrastructure, and with the rise of cyberattacks, security has become paramount.

Many people are under the impression that your cloud provider covers all aspects of security, but that’s actually not the case. Cloud-based environments use a shared security model pioneered by Amazon Web Services, which means that your company is responsible for maintaining some aspects of your cloud security. If a security breach happens, it is the owners of the data and not the cloud vendors who are at fault.

Security of The Cloud

Your cloud platform provider is responsible for a good portion of cloud security. A cloud provider will ensure that its platform is secure, so your infrastructure inside its platform will be protected. Cloud vendors like Amazon control their databases’ physical security, the virtualization layer, and the operating system. However, within a specific instance, there are plenty of ways that breaches in security can happen, and your cloud provider isn’t responsible for those; your company is.

Security in The Cloud

Despite the ways that cloud providers like Amazon ensure your data’s safety, an individual company does have its fair share of security aspects to manage. Customers must confirm their own security within their instance of the platform. Similarly, users are responsible for their company’s firewall, accessibility and identified users, and data integrity. Basically, the cloud vendor can only go so far in protecting your data once your company starts using that data and transferring it within your specific instance.

As your company grows and requires the cloud environment to scale with it, the complexity of the data can become enormous and hard to manage. This can end up making it more difficult to ensure secure encryption and management.

That means that cloud features like network configuration, encryption, and application management are all the company’s responsibility, not the web provider. That might sound intimidating at first, but with the right help on your side, your company can keep your customers’ data safe and sound.

Your company will need an expert on your side to see through that complexity and alert you ahead of time if there is a possible security issue. Pantek can help your company with security, compliance, security updates and patches for your software, configuration management, system tuning, and continuous optimization, so security doesn’t have to be a worry.

Now that you know this distinct line that web providers have set down, let us help you with that critical portion you’re responsible for. Contact us today.