Dematic and Google Cloud Debunk Common Cloud Security Myths
Takeaways
- Cybersecurity Concerns Hinder Cloud Adoption: Many supply chain companies are reluctant to migrate to the cloud due to fears and misconceptions about security risks and compliance. The rising number of data breaches and supply chain attacks fuels these concerns.
- Common Cloud Security Myths Debunked: The article directly challenges and debunks four common myths surrounding cloud security: the cloud is not secure, migration means losing control, the cloud is overly complex, and cloud providers don't prioritize industry-specific compliance.
- Cloud Migration Offers Benefits and Enhanced Security: Companies can achieve greater efficiencies, scalability, and cost reductions by migrating to the cloud. This migration, especially with a proactive partner like Dematic and Google Cloud, enhances security and resilience against cyber threats.
There are good reasons for cybersecurity concerns…
Fears and misconceptions about security and compliance in the cloud have led to critical industries and verticals often hesitating to move business-critical systems to the cloud. PwC has found that only 62% of surveyed warehouse, distribution, and operations leaders have invested in cloud technology despite its significant impact on driving successful operations.
Cybersecurity concerns are warranted. While our current era of unprecedented technological advancement, from cloud to AI, opens businesses up to new levels of efficiency, scalability, and collaboration, bad actors stay a step ahead, exploiting the same promising technologies to compromise data and conduct attacks.
According to the ITRC 2023 Annual Data Breach Report, data compromises reached a new all-time high, surging 72% over the previous all-time high in 2021. The scale and impact of digital supply chain attacks — where attackers exploit software components or third-party vendors to access multiple organizations — have also soared, with the number of companies impacted increasing by more than 2,600% between 2018 and 2023.
The escalating threat environment has led many company leaders across all supply chain industries and verticals, from warehousing to delivery, to take a cautious approach to cloud migration and the partners they use in the cloud. Gartner estimates that by 2025, 60% of supply chain organizations will use cybersecurity risk as a significant determinant in conducting third-party transactions and business engagements.
…but Dematic and Google Cloud have solutions in place to alleviate the fear
My colleague Prasanna Ankem, Google Cloud Principal Architect, shares his perspective, “Business leaders must take a cautious approach armed with factual information rather than myths and misconceptions. This will enable them to safely gain the competitive advantages of the cloud while remaining in good graces with the third parties and partners that make up complex supply chains.”
A proactive defense strategy is crucial in the face of escalating cyber threats. The best way to ensure this proactivity and continuous improvement is by leveraging an easily updated and monitored cloud environment, which provides a sense of reassurance and preparedness.
Myth 1: The cloud is NOT secure
Industry and vertical business leaders often assume the cloud is less secure than on-premises systems or too complex for their teams to manage. They worry they will lose control over their data, not know who has access, or be unable to meet internal, industry, and regulatory compliance requirements. But the truth is that the cloud is more secure, easier for teams to manage, and often more cost-effective than on-premises (sometimes called on-prem) or hybrid deployments.
The cloud allows strapped IT departments to offload on-premises infrastructure management and to automate updates. It’s easier to scale in the cloud, expand to new locations, and integrate systems and data. Critically, it can make it easier to provide more robust cybersecurity. The cloud can open up so many new capabilities for companies, as well as complete network and endpoint visibility.
Many companies don’t have the teams or expertise to keep their mission-critical apps on-premises with the high security levels a cloud-native app vendor can provide. For these teams, a cloud-enabled business model just makes better business sense.
Why cloud security is a better choice
On-premises applications rapidly become outdated, and strapped IT teams locally can miss a patch or update. In addition to their other duties, they must monitor the environment, maintain backups, and remediate vulnerabilities and compromises.
One missed patch introduces vulnerabilities in your software and exposes your software to attacks. Additionally, companies must physically secure on-premises servers and data centers to protect machines from improper insider access, theft, and natural disasters. The software is updated and patched on Google Cloud.
Companies often use multiple applications to manage their warehouses, supply chains, or operations. Each requires constant attention to ensure compliance and collaboration.
Dematic on Google Cloud replaces multiple applications with a single dashboard, providing a simple interface and insight into operations. Dematic’s partnership with Google Cloud enables compliance, updates, and patches to be pushed to the instance rather than requiring manual IT team time.
“Dematic Software on Google Cloud enables even the smallest companies to gain the same security technologies and expertise that protects the world’s largest enterprises. This includes vigilant real-time monitoring, cyber threat intelligence from elite professionals, digital twins that continually assess the risks unique to each company’s cloud environment, and efficient automated remediation. Google Cloud’s data centers are protected by a multilayered security approach that would be difficult for typical businesses to replicate,” notes Ankem.
With Google Cloud, automatic patch management is part of Google services such as Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Autopilot and Compute Engine's OS patch management, ensuring Dematic systems remain up to date without manual intervention. Data in Google Cloud Storage is encrypted at rest and supports geo-redundancy to safeguard against data loss from localized incidents. Any business using Dematic Software on Google Cloud has the same exceptional global protection and compliance standards, whether a small business or an international enterprise.
Myth 2: Migration to the cloud means giving up control
Migrating to the cloud from on-premises systems can feel like ceding control and opening the environment to cyber risk. The cloud’s abstraction – virtual machines instead of machines that IT teams purchase, configure, and manage — raises questions about where data lives and who can access it.
The catch-all nature of cyber and digital supply chain attacks means they can target any business regardless of size or industry. No business is exempt from security risk. Smaller companies can pose a more attractive target because they are assumed to have less stringent security or be more willing to pay ransom.
Cloud migration: A path to enhanced security and reassurance
Dematic Software on Google Cloud provides systems that give exceptional visibility into everything happening in the business in a single dashboard environment for businesses of all sizes. This high level of control includes visibility into everything from warehouse operations and hardware to delivery operators to the entire supply chain — depending on what is needed. A granular understanding of all areas of operations minimizes complexity and budget waste and enhances security, environment control, and productivity.
Dematic ensures user data is stored securely and follows privacy principles to protect customer data. Dematic Software on Google Cloud is GDPR compliant, allowing customers to control their data, including the right to withdraw consent at any time.
Myth 3: The cloud is complex
In today’s landscape, cloud-enabled software introduces a complex web of interconnected components, making it more challenging to manage security effectively. Traditional on-premises environments need help to keep up with modern software’s rapid updates and integration demands. While the cloud introduces new security considerations, the notion that the internal IT team is solely responsible for managing these risks must be corrected.
Google Cloud’s Shared Fate model solves the complexity
Dematic Software operates on Google Cloud’s Shared Fate model, emphasizing collaboration and proactive support to help customers secure their environments, no matter how complex. This dramatically reduces operational risk and makes the cloud a safer, less complex environment. The safer Google Cloud operates, the safer its partners and customers can manage — and vice versa.
“Google Cloud's Shared Fate model represents a significant shift in the cloud provider-customer relationship, moving away from a traditional shared responsibility model towards a more collaborative and supportive partnership, explains Ankem. “The Shared Fate model is a departure from the traditional cloud security paradigm. It prioritizes collaboration, customer needs, and shared success. This approach enhances security, reduces risk, fosters trust, and allows businesses to focus on their primary objectives.”
Security is a continuous process requiring effort from the cloud provider and the partner. Google Cloud's Shared Fate model empowers partners such as Dematic and its customers to take a proactive approach to security while benefiting from the cloud provider's expertise and support.
Dematic built its cloud solutions to adhere to the Google Cloud Architecture Framework. We worked with Google Cloud security experts to ensure everything was built and configured to best-practice standards. We also employ the Google Cloud Security Command Center (SCC) for ongoing risk management. SCC provides continuous risk assessment and vulnerability management across assets. Features like Security Health Analytics and Event Threat Detection help organizations rapidly identify misconfigurations, exposed resources, or anomalous behavior.
This exacting approach allows Dematic customers and their IT and security teams to benefit from the cybersecurity expertise of both Dematic and Google Cloud.
Benefits of the Shared Fate Model:
Automated, Available Security
Automatic hierarchical implementation of secure policy, readily available security solutions to secure the cloud, secure by default configurations, and automatic regulatory compliance.
Enhanced Security
Google Cloud's expertise and resources contribute to the overall security posture.
Reduced Risk
Proactive risk management and collaboration mitigate potential threats.
Improved Trust
Open communication and shared goals build confidence in the partnership.
Streamlined Operations
Google Cloud's support enables the customer to focus on their core business while they help manage security challenges.
Myth 4: Cloud providers don't prioritize industry-specific compliance needs
Supply chain strength is critical to the economy, and the U.S. inaugurated the White House Council on Supply Chain Resilience in 2023. The EU Council adopted the Cyber Resilience Act in October 2024. The importance of this vertical — and the general complexity of doing business in a global digital age — can be demonstrated by the array of internal, industry, and governmental regulations that supply chain-related companies must comply with.
The regulatory environment gets even more challenging if the company operates multi-nationally or within the supply chain of other highly regulated industries, such as food manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, transportation, or energy.
Global vertical-specific compliance
A hyperscaler like Google Cloud must meet the compliance needs of partners and customers of all sizes across all industries and regions worldwide, with stringent regulations acting as a baseline.
“Google Cloud compliance experts help the Google Cloud team stay one step ahead so that customers remain compliant when new rules go into effect,” says Ankem. “We also engage third-party auditors to validate compliance.”
This attention to compliance allows its partners, such as Dematic, to provide a secure and compliant cloud environment to its supply chain customers.
Cloud migration drives security, efficiency, and growth for supply chain companies
Ultimately, warehouses, distributors, and other businesses can benefit from the cloud security and compliance experience of companies such as Dematic and Google Cloud, from the investment in advanced technologies to manage cyber risk, and from making a commitment to keep customers safe.
By migrating on-premises solutions to the cloud, costs and work can be reduced, and supply chain-related companies can gain new efficiencies, scale more efficiently, meet changing business needs, and minimize risk with enhanced security.
The cloud offers organizations a powerful platform to streamline operations and bolster their defenses against cyber threats. The scalability, flexibility, and advanced security features inherent to cloud environments empower businesses to adapt quickly to market fluctuations while maintaining a robust security posture.
Migration to the cloud presents a compelling opportunity for industries to revolutionize their operations. By embracing cloud technologies, companies reduce costs, enhance efficiency, and achieve greater scalability while fortifying their defenses against the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats. As industry leaders affirm, the cloud catalyzes supply chain transformation, enabling businesses to thrive in today's competitive market and build a resilient foundation for future growth and success.