TAGUIG CITY – An increasing number of organizations are now embracing cloud technologies, with hybrid and multi-cloud models emerging as the preferred strategies. These approaches play a crucial role in digital transformation, providing the agility and adaptability required to remain competitive in today’s fast-evolving market. Cloud adoption empowers companies to simplify workflows, support hybrid workforce models, deliver tailored experiences, and optimize distributed operations, driving greater efficiency and scalability.
In the Asia Pacific, cloud adoption is accelerating, with nearly 90% of businesses leveraging multiple public clouds to manage substantial workloads, according to IDC’s Asia/Pacific State of Cloud: Adoption Trends, Challenges, and Preferences. This trend is also evident in the Philippines, where cloud adoption continues to grow. This shift is expected to provide businesses with enhanced scalability, flexibility, and resilience, enabling them to adapt to changing demands and seize new opportunities in a dynamic market.
However, while the cloud delivers significant benefits for businesses, it also presents challenges that organizations must address, including maintaining regulatory compliance, ensuring visibility and control, and protecting sensitive data across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Effectively navigating these challenges is essential for organizations to fully realize the potential of their cloud strategies and sustain long-term success.
Challenges in cloud security
Fortinet’s 2025 State of Cloud Security Report highlighted key cloud security challenges, with security and compliance concerns at the forefront. As hybrid and multi-cloud environments become more complex, organizations are increasingly identifying misconfigurations, regulatory noncompliance, and data breaches as the most pressing issues.
Another significant challenge is the cybersecurity skills gap, which was also emphasized in Fortinet’s Cybersecurity Skills Gap 2024 report. Cloud security remains one of the hardest areas to find skilled professionals, with 42% of Philippine organizations citing this shortage. This lack of cloud security expertise and resources limits organizations’ ability to implement and manage comprehensive security solutions. Addressing this gap requires targeted training and upskilling, as well as recalibrating cloud deployment strategies to minimize complexity and enhance security effectiveness.
Additionally, real-time threat detection presents a major challenge. According to Fortinet’s latest cloud security report, only 36% of surveyed organizations worldwide are confident in their ability to detect and respond to threats in their cloud environments. Effective real-time detection is crucial for minimizing cyber risks and protecting cloud assets.
Investing in a unified cloud security platform
As organizations face the growing security challenges of digital transformation, cybersecurity has become a top priority for the board of directors. The Skills Gap survey revealed that 94% of the board of directors in the Philippines now consider cybersecurity a critical concern. This shift leads to increased IT security budgets, which are essential for safeguarding hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
As organizations assess their cloud security strategies, Fortinet’s 2025 State of Cloud Security Report highlighted the importance of adopting a unified cloud security platform. Implementing a unified platform, such as the Fortinet Lacework FortiCNAPP cloud-native application protection solution, provides unmatched visibility, integrates cloud security, detects zero-day threats, improves anomaly detection, and ensures compliance with evolving regulatory requirements and industry best practices. This approach increases operational effectiveness while minimizing complexity. Additionally, it offers key benefits like cloud security posture management (CSPM), code security, and cloud infrastructure entitlement management, among others.
Developing a resilient cloud security posture
To help businesses strengthen their cloud security posture and combat sophisticated threats in hybrid and multi-cloud environments, Fortinet offers proactive strategies for mitigating risks.
First, organizations should adopt a centralized platform to streamline policy management and ensure consistency across different environments. A unified approach reduces complexity and enhances operational efficiency.
Second, addressing the cybersecurity skills shortage is vital. The lack of trained professionals remains a significant factor behind security breaches. Investing in comprehensive training programs and upskilling opportunities can bridge this gap. Employees should also be trained in best practices for managing access keys, identifying potential risks, and avoiding common errors that could compromise cloud security. Even small mistakes can have serious consequences in cloud setups.
Third, leveraging a Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) is essential. CNAPP integrates various cloud security tools to deliver unified visibility, threat protection, and risk management for applications, users, workloads, and infrastructure—from code to cloud. This holistic approach enhances security and simplifies management.
Finally, organizations should implement end-to-end encryption to safeguard data and use automated risk remediation to address vulnerabilities in real-time. These measures not only improve data protection but also help organizations maintain compliance with regulatory requirements and industry standards.
As organizations strengthen their cloud security posture, they should anticipate emerging trends shaping the future of cloud security, too. These include AI-driven threat detection, the integration of edge computing for faster processing and protection, and the growing adoption of zero-trust architectures to ensure stricter access controls and enhanced security.
With the increasing adoption of cloud technologies, protecting cloud infrastructures from cyber threats is critical. Establishing a resilient cloud security posture allows organizations to fully realize the benefits of hybrid and multi-cloud environments, driving innovation, efficiency, and long-term success in an ever-evolving digital landscape.
