Fortinet, a global cybersecurity company, released its 2024 Cloud Security Report, which provides critical insights into the current trends driving cloud security. It focuses on the key challenges that organizations face in safeguarding complex cloud environments and offers a thorough examination of security solutions and strategies to ensure effective protection of data and systems.
“As Saudi Arabia steadily progresses toward digital transformation and increasingly relies on cloud computing solutions to achieve the goals of Vision 2030, the importance of securing these cloud environments is becoming even more apparent, and is now a top priority for organizations in the region,” said Sami Alshwairakh, senior director for Saudi Arabia at Fortinet.
“The 2024 Cloud Security Report underscores the challenges and best practices that Saudi businesses must address to ensure the security and compliance of their cloud-based operations.”
The report, based on a comprehensive survey of 927 cybersecurity professionals worldwide, offers valuable guidance for Saudi organizations seeking to adopt cloud computing technologies safely and efficiently.
“The release of this report underscores Fortinet’s commitment to supporting Saudi Arabia’s digital transformation journey by offering advanced security solutions that help organizations protect their cloud environments and enhance their cybersecurity capabilities,” the company said in a statement.
According to the report, 78 percent of organizations globally are adopting hybrid and multi-cloud strategies. These organizations prefer integrating multi-deployment operations into a single operational environment to leverage the flexibility, control, and unique advantages offered by various cloud services.
The report indicates that 43 percent of these organizations prefer hybrid infrastructure that combines both public and private cloud platforms. Meanwhile, 35 percent are adopting a multi-cloud strategy, reflecting a preference for leveraging the strengths of different cloud service providers to meet various use cases. These global trends align with the Saudi government’s focus on supporting the adoption of cloud computing technologies and diversifying cloud service providers, which contributes to the digital transformation across all sectors in the Kingdom.
Security and compliance issues are the primary barriers to faster adoption of multi-cloud strategies, cited by 59 percent of respondents in the report. Additionally, 49 percent of participants recognize that resource limitations, including a lack of staff expertise and budget constraints, pose significant hurdles to the success of cloud initiatives.