Cyber-threats traditionally targeting on-premises resources -- such as ransomware, identity theft, and data exfiltration -- are a growing concern for cloud services. As organisations’ adoption of the cloud continues to accelerate, effectively addressing these additional security challenges is a top concern. Mid-market companies are especially challenged. Cloud adoption is more prevalent in the mid-market due to its ease of deployment and low upfront costs. However, mid-market firms typically lack the expertise and resources required to effectively secure their cloud deployments.

“Contrary to popular belief with the cloud, the customer is still responsible for ensuring that their workload is secure and protected against things like credential abuse or data exfiltration – both of which are leading cloud security concerns,” said Esentire Chief Technology Officer Mark McArdle. “Esentire is unique in its ability to hunt for threats in leading cloud providers, on-premises network systems, and endpoint devices to protect our clients’ data whether it’s behind their firewall or hosted in the cloud.”

Most security practitioners that properly address cloud deployments can be as or more secure than on-premises ones. In “Predicts 2017: Cloud Security” Gartner states that: “On-premises security habits and designs are a poor fit for the cloud. To properly address the customer portions of the shared responsibility model, leaders should plan to make full use of the cloud’s native visibility and control capabilities, and augment with third-party tools when appropriate.”