The cloud technology has come with benefits that are valuable to many organizations. Today, organizations do not need to own computing resources to deploy software and systems. The cost benefits that have been realized from cloud computing have seen quite a number of organizations adopting it. However, there have been several fears about the technology that have possibly held back organizations from fully adopting it. Organizations are not quite ready to trust third-party cloud vendors with sensitive data. The organizations that have put out their data on the cloud want to ensure that it is safe and cannot be accessed by unauthorized parties, and this includes the cloud platform vendors.
Many of the organizations that have adopted, or are contemplating adopting, the cloud technology undoubtedly need a cybersecurity expert to guide them. As a cloud security expert, you will have the skills to ensure that data and systems are secure on the cloud platform. You will ensure that apps running from the cloud cannot be manipulated by third parties. You will also ensure that the data stored on the cloud is secure and cannot be accessed by unauthorized parties. You will ensure that authentication and authorization to databases and systems are strict, so that stolen credentials cannot be used to access it. Lastly, you will have to devise ways to prevent the cloud platform owner or vendor from accessing data on the cloud. Since many organizations will eventually adopt cloud technologies, job opportunities in this field will gradually increase.
The learning options in cloud security are many, as most e-Learning academies offer the course. Some of the trusted platforms that you can learn about this include Coursera and edX. edX in particular offers cloud security as a micro masters program and delves deeply into the cloud, its associated security challenges, and how they can be mitigated. At the end of the course, a student is able to handle virtually all security challenges affecting the cloud.
We will discuss more about this in Chapter 9, Knowledge Check and Certifications.
If you would like to learn more about Amazon cloud security, check out this web site: https://aws.amazon.com/security/security-resources/.
For IBM cloud security resources check this web site: https://www.ibm.com/security/solutions/secure-hybrid-cloud.
If you would like to learn vendor-neutral cloud security, then check the SANS website out: https://www.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/cloud/.
You can find up to date free white papers at SANS Reading Room. And of course you can find resources about cloud from Cisco as well at https://www.cisco.com/c/en_sg/solutions/cloud/overview.html.