Relying heavily on the Cloud can affect Application Delivery

The primary objective of an application is to deliver services as quickly and efficiently as possible for users. App providers, organizations and individuals have become increasingly reliant on using the cloud because of the almost instant service. Use is flexible, primarily as operations within an organization evolve and no hardware means lower maintenance costs. As a cheaper option for organizations, it is always favorable with executive management and a flexible solution. In 2018, Forbes reported 77% of organizations had at least one portion of its applications in the cloud. It further discovered that industries were being led by executive management to become 100% cloud-based. Building an infrastructure around this can be good in some cases, but reliance on the cloud can allow organizations to overlook the security, management, and visibility aspects of it. 

Risks in cloud reliance

Security around application delivery is at risk when not effectively managed. The consequences for organizations can range from data breaches to loss of data integrity. Such outcomes have a financial, legal and commercial impact. One security risk that comes with the cloud is the threat of data breaches that it faces. Insecure Application Programming Interfaces (API) pose a threat to an organizations data held within the cloud, especially when directly presented for public consumption. With the fast development of technology and its continual evolution, it is no surprise that the security aspect of moving to the cloud is often. The importance of security measures such as forward/reverse proxy, security zone isolation, encryption and multi-factor authentication are beginning to be highlighted but yet to be implemented by default by organizations. Furthermore, organizational responsibility around the security of their apps delivered in the cloud is an underlining issue not often considered.

The Solution

Holistic application delivery strategies are what organizations are moving toward. Specifically, strategies that not only encompass security for a globally distributed application reality, but also provide central management and control, visibility into user experience, and proactive orchestration for configuration and threat management.