Shared Responsibility in the Cloud: What the Provider Secures and What Your Company Is Responsible For
Cloud today is not simply a box you take services from without having to worry about anything. It is a system that combines your responsibility as a customer with that of the cloud provider. And this is where one of the most common misconceptions arises – people assume that moving to the cloud transfers responsibility for security to someone else. It does not.
Why companies move to the cloud and what it actually takes off their shoulders
AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle – each of these providers offers hundreds of services. The names differ, but the principles are often the same. What they all have in common is that they aim to make it easier to deploy applications in the cloud. However, this does not mean that you do not have responsibilities of your own. This model is known as shared responsibility.
The principle is simple: the cloud provider takes care of what you do not physically see – data centers, network infrastructure, and the hardware everything runs on. You take care of what you build on that infrastructure: applications, data, access, and configuration.
Where the provider's responsibility ends and yours begins
Think of it as renting office space. The building owner takes care of the roof, elevators, electricity, and security at the entrance. But who has the keys to your office, what you keep in your drawers, and who can access your documents is up to you.
The cloud works the same way. If you use a virtual server, the provider takes care of the physical hardware and the underlying network. The operating system, patches, firewall configuration, and access management are your responsibility. The more you move toward managed services, such as database-as-a-service or serverless solutions, the more responsibility the provider takes on. But never all of it.
Where mistakes happen most often
Cloud incidents rarely happen because the provider itself fails. Much more often, the cause is that a company did not know or simply forgot what it was responsible for securing. Overly broad permissions, publicly accessible storage containing sensitive data, unpatched applications, or credentials stored in the wrong place.
These are not cloud failures. They are configuration errors – and configuration is your responsibility.
So what does this mean for you as a manager?
Choosing the cloud is not enough. You need to understand what responsibilities come with that decision. Which responsibilities remain on your side? Who in your team is accountable for them? Are your people prepared for them?
The cloud takes the burden of hardware, data centers, and physical infrastructure off your shoulders. In return, it expects you to know what you are doing with what you build on top of it.
A question for you: Can someone in your company clearly explain where your cloud provider's responsibility ends and yours begins? If not, that may be where your biggest security risk lies.
SP Software Solutions | Just Cloud IT