A Winning IT Leader’s Digital Transformation Strategy: Compliance & Security in Managed Cloud

CIOs today are striving to modernize their IT environments and achieve seamless digital transformation while simultaneously executing on core business needs and meeting strict compliance requirements. At the same time, IT professionals must ensure that technology streamlines internal operations effectively and optimizes strategic benefits for their companies. Read about a winning IT strategy: compliance & security.

Today, companies are experiencing a paradigm shift in the IT landscape with more security threats than ever before. Compliance and security are influencing the way IT leaders make business decisions, and these market drivers are moving IT professionals to innovate their technology strategies for a more efficient, flexible, scalable and secure environment. If IT executives are not complying with internal and government regulations or staying ahead of potential security threats, they could be jeopardizing the company.

What Does Compliance Mean for Businesses?

For years, national legislation such as HIPPA, SOX, and others drove data security regulations. It motivated IT leaders to address security concerns around hardware and software according to these compliance policies. Today, there is a new wave of laws affecting businesses on a global level. One of those regulations is GDPR, General Data Protection Regulation, which require companies to govern and manage compliance for the data they produce, increasing the need for data protection and personal privacy.

Consumers must individually “opt-in” or consent to having their personal information ethically used by the company. Therefore, businesses need enterprise-wide data mapping, data inventory, management of vendors, regular auditing, and privacy compliance programs to ensure that they are respecting consumer privacy. Companies that are subject to this law must maintain a record of data processing activities to monitor their compliance. If the regulation is not abided by, GDPR fines can exceed up to 4% of annual company revenue.

Is Security Being Effectively Managed?

While IT leaders aim to meet complex regulatory or internal requirements, they also need to stay ahead of security threats. IT professionals need to keep up with today’s mobile workforce in today’s BYOD-enabled work environment. Effective monitoring is essential, as lost or stolen employee devices must be handled quickly and efficiently.

Also, IT administrators need to keep up with updates, patches, and troubleshooting. Without centralized management, break-fix problems can pile up and prevent IT leaders from focusing on more significant issues.

BYOD Concerns

A BYOD-enabled workplace is also susceptible to internal security vulnerabilities. Research shows that 90%+ of security breaches involve human error, which is why many companies are moving to awareness training or managed cloud partnerships. Employees are jeopardizing company information by just writing their login credentials on sticky notes. While security officers are looking externally for attacks, a company’s most significant security risk could come from internal forces as well.

IT leaders need an Identity Management solution to help properly permit or revoke access to the correct employees. In addition, IT professionals are now including multi-factor authentication (MFA) as a standard practice for security strategy to provide a higher degree of assurance. MFA generates a multi-layered technology that an unauthorized user would have to combat to gain access to a computing device, network, or database. An individual needs to have a minimum of two separate forms of authentication to grant access. This is especially crucial for PCI compliance as organizations are now evaluating to make MFA implementations a new standard for conformance.

Managed IT Cloud Solutions for Digital Transformation

Working with a managed cloud computing provider can deliver secure and reliable solutions to IT challenges that are keeping IT executives up at night. We partner with leading providers that offer a global cloud platform, a team of IT experts for both advanced engineering needs and basic IT support needs, project managers, and a dedicated account management team. Focused on delivering an exceptional client experience either as a standalone offering or partnered with an IT team.

Securing the IT perimeter and delivering a desktop-as-a-service strategy for security and compliance is gaining momentum in the IT space. Solutions are available that enable organizations to move all their applications to a more centralized and secure environment. Through a seamless desktop user experience accompanied with enterprise-grade security, employees can securely access their desktops from any device. A managed cloud desktop will keep your environment compliant and secure with the option to have third-party experts support it.

With a more secure and compliant IT environment, IT leaders won’t need to worry about manually placing policies in place, and they can focus more on initiatives and strategies that drive revenue.

Managed Cloud Providers for Security and Compliance

A top-tier managed cloud provider offers industry-leading network and host-based security tools that meet major government regulations. It addresses business vulnerabilities to mitigate risk, prevents data loss, and protects against attacks. Web-based administration, unified security management, and compliance reporting deliver clear visibility for effective monitoring of all the activities in an IT environment.

Email security, archiving, and automatically updated threat signatures protect against phishing attacks and security breaches. In addition, the network-based inspection firewall, anti-virus software, and anti-malware applications continue to defend the IT environment against malware and other security threats. It’s possible for IT executives to align their technology strategies with their organization’s business objectives. IT leaders don’t just need a managed cloud provider. They need a strategic partner to help them meet the needs and expectations of their businesses. True technology-driven companies are powering their organizations forward and leaving their competitors behind.

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