Page 68 - Cyber Defense eMagazine January 2024
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According  to  Radware’s  2023  Application  Security  in  a  Multi-Cloud  World  report,  two  hundred
            organizations  weighed  in on  this trend,  confirming  a  shift in their  security  strategies.  According  to the
            2023  data, only  24% of them  said they  deployed  applications  on  multiple cloud  environments.  This is
            down from the 58% of organizations that said they deployed applications across two or more public cloud
            environments  in  our  2022  survey.  And  while  21%  of  organizations  were  using  three  or  more  cloud
            environments in 2022, only a negligible percentage seem to be doing so in 2023.



            Why companies are making a u-turn

            So why are companies making this shift? There are several compelling factors.

            Security  is one of them.  At the same  time that  multi-cloud  deployments  are showing  signs of  decline,
            concerns about security threats are on the rise. The inability to achieve consistent security policies across
            multi-clouds  topped the list as a problem or extreme  problem for 56% of the organizations  surveyed in
            2023 compared to just 26% in 2022. And security mistakes are costly. According to the survey, downtime
            due to a successful application DDoS attack costs organizations an average of $6,130 per minute.

            Other security areas respondents ranked as problems or extreme problems included protection between
            platforms (61% in 2023 vs. 38% in 2022), unified visibility (58% in 2023 vs. 41% in 2022) and centralized
            management (46% in 2023 vs. 34% in 2022).


            Security is not, however, the only factor causing companies to rethink their security strategies and move
            applications and data back on-premise. Other considerations include:

            Cost management: While the cloud’s pay-as-you-go  model can be cost-effective for variable workloads,
            it can lead to unexpected expenses when usage spikes. Where predictable workloads are concerned, it
            can be more cost-efficient  to invest in on-premise  infrastructure  over the long term, rather than paying
            ongoing cloud service fees.

            Performance and latency: Applications requiring low-latency responses  or intense computational  power
            can  encounter  performance  bottlenecks  in a cloud  environment.  Running  such workloads  on-premise
            can offer more consistent performance and responsiveness.


            Data sovereignty  and security: Industries  with strict regulatory  requirements  often  need to ensure  that
            sensitive data is stored and processed within specific geographic regions to comply with data sovereignty
            laws. Maintaining  control over  that data and having  physical  access to it offers a level of security  and
            compliance that cloud solutions cannot always guarantee.

            Complexity and vendor lock-in: Adopting multiple cloud services and platforms can create technical and
            security  complexities.  Additionally,  concerns  about vendor  lock-in and potential  difficulties  in migrating
            between cloud providers  can cause some organizations  to consider  bringing workloads  back in-house.


            Changing  priorities: As  strategic  priorities  evolve  and  shift,  some  workloads  can  end  up  being  better
            suited for an on-premise environment. This could be driven by an organizational desire for tighter control,
            specific performance requirements, or changing business needs.




            Cyber Defense eMagazine – January 2024 Edition                                                                                                                                                                                                          68
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