Security challenges persist despite cloud services adoption: EY's Bellary

Ranjeet Bellary, partner at EY said that the Cloud has disrupted the way clients access their data and scale their operations

Around 80 per cent of cybersecurity breaches in 2023 involved Cloud data, and security challenges persist despite the adoption of cloud services, said Ranjeet Bellary, partner at EY, at Business Standard BFSI Insight Summit 2023.

Talking at a panel discussion on security challenges and Cloud services at the BFSI Insight Summit in Mumbai, Bellary said that the Cloud has disrupted the way clients access their data and scale their operations. It provides an agile framework for companies to expand. Cybersecurity operations have to catch up to the transformation.

Raghvendra Singh, global head of cloud security at TCS, talked about the reasons why corporations chose cloud services. He explained that the flexibility the Cloud provides. "The changing regulatory landscape is making enterprises switch to the Cloud. Cloud provides companies with the ability to scale their operations", Singh said.

Explaining his experience in the BFSI space, Singh added, "One needs to have a future in the mind when moving towards the Cloud. It has to be a well-thought-out decision. The costs to move data is high. The Cloud offers resilience to unlock the full potential of data. The whole ecosystem around data has changed because of Covid-19", he added.

Rajesh Mirjankar, managing director and CEO of Kiya.AI said that the Covid-19 pandemic has been a litmus test for the Cloud and data services but the Cloud is the way to go in the future. "Banks have stood the test of time and they know how to cut losses. Banks are in a good position to adopt the Cloud."

On the prevalence of data centres, Sujeeth Williams, director of sales at NTT, said that in the post-Covid period, transformation has grown by leaps and bounds. Data centres have become critical after the Covid-19 pandemic. Banks want to leave specialised services to experts. Demand for data centres has grown.

Prakash Bharath of Freshworks talked about the transformation in the digital transaction landscape that began with the demonetisation in the country. AI-enabled PhonePe to respond to a large number of queries in a short period of time, making it cost-efficient.

Bharat said that K V Kamath is correct when he says that banks are two decades behind when it comes to the use of technology. Bharat added that Freshworks has benefited from the cloud expansion in the country.

Talking about generative AI and the changes it has brought, Bharath said, "We have some of the Generative AI features that we can roll out in just ten minutes." He said, "We are living in the age of now."

"We don't have enough skilled people to manage the transformation to Cloud and this is leading to a lot of challenges we see in this space", Bellary added. Fintechs have done a good job in terms of how they have moved their operations entirely to the Cloud, he said.

There is a moment when you move data to the Cloud, make sure guard rails are built. Security cannot be an afterthought.", Singh added.