Understanding security policies

Let's start from our traditional, on-premises data center—a building traditionally used to host physical equipment that runs applications and stores data. The building is very likely secured by a fence and heavy, locked doors that can only be opened by authorized personnel. Access to the computer floors is also secured. There may be guards in the building or CCTV systems watching over equipment 24 hours a day. The next layer of defense is the access to the systems and data. Access to systems is strictly regulated: only authorized and certified engineers may access the systems. It's all common sense when it comes to running systems in a physical data center.

You would be surprised to see what happens if companies move these systems to cloud environments with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions. For some reason, companies tend to think that by moving systems to...