Many companies utilize a variety of cloud environments in order to support their workflows. Multi-cloud computing has numerous advantages, including reducing costs, increasing redundancy, and eliminating vendor lock-in. It also presents unique security challenges because data is often spread over multiple platforms, each with its own security measures. Having full control and visibility over the environment can be a challenge, and it is difficult to consistently enforce security policies.
Cloud environments are also usually built with microservices. These are independent building block components which make up an application. If one of these components fails, the whole application won’t be disrupted. This provides a higher level of resilience than applications on premises that are dependent on infrastructure they are running on.
A reliable internet connection is critical to cloud computing, however there are many ways to make it vulnerable. These include denial of-service attacks, malware infections insider threats and man-in-the middle attacks, SQL injections and other criminal actions. Cyberattacks can cause major disruption to an organization and its ability to provide customers, so it’s essential that robust cybersecurity practices are implemented in the cloud environment.
Cloud applications allow staff to work from anywhere, at any time. These applications are a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering, which means they are hosted by the cloud services provider and can be accessed from any web browser. The cloud service provider handles the updates, bug fixes, and general maintenance of software are handled by the vendor. This reduces the risk for IT teams. Workspaces can be configured to connect with a range of third-party cloud apps like JupyterLab and the git CLI which makes it easier to collaborate on projects in an integrated way.