The CISO’s Perspective: Cloud Security

We have recently written about the top trends from our Leadership Perspective Survey among CISOs in our Evanta communities around the world. As more CISOs share their perspectives with us (we’re up to nearly 1,000 survey results!), we are taking a deeper dive into their top three organizational and investment priorities for 2022.

Reducing Risk remains the top priority for leaders across the C-suite.  This priority is closely followed by increasing operational efficiencies and productivity, with driving growth coming in as the third priority for their enterprise.

For their security function, cloud security is clearly CISOs’ number one priority, and the most selected area of investment (Cloud Security/CASB), with 44% of CISOs indicating that they will invest in the cloud this year. As we start a series of three blogs capturing CISOs perspectives and priorities for 2022, let’s take a deeper dive into the cloud. 

What are we hearing from CISOs about cloud security? 

One CISO noted that “organizations are on different rungs of the ladder on maturity in relation to cloud security,” and thus, there is an appetite to hear from peers at different phases of cloud security. Another security leader wondered how others are monitoring cloud security, asking, “How do we effectively monitor this once we have implemented it? It’s about people, not just technology.”

These are CISOs’ top goals for cloud security: 

Some CISOs that have recently started their cloud journey are interested in strategizing for what lies ahead. As one security leader said, “We are interested to know what the goals will be in 3 years. How can we achieve digitalization and zero trust goals? What actions do we need to take in the next 3 years to reach our goals?”

Another CISO looking to the future said, “My concern is cloud providers are changing on a regular basis. How can you prove that you are secure when you move to the cloud? How can you make sure that you can cope with the pace — and keep up with regulation, too?” 

Here are CISOs’ top challenges with cloud security:

So, are CISOs looking for technology and services to help with their cloud security? CISOs in several communities indicated it was their first- or second-ranked area of investment in 2022.

Across all communities, 66% of CISOs who plan to spend on cloud security also said their budget for technology and services increased this year. And 74% of those security leaders also plan to invest in the next 12 months. 

Here is a closer look at how some of our top North American CISO communities are ranking their investments in cloud security and their timelines for investing their resources.

The topic of cloud security, strategy and architecture will be on the agenda at these CISO Executive Summits this spring: 

San Francisco CISO Executive Summit on May 10th

Boston CISO Executive Summit on May 10th

Dallas CISO Executive Summit on May 17th

If you’re looking for an opportunity to discuss cloud security with your CISO peers, you can view all upcoming summits across Evanta CISO communities here.