Voices of DGIT | Thought Leadership Article
By Sammy Luvinzu, Presales Manager – East Africa
For most organizations today, the cloud is no longer just an IT choice – it has become a strategic business enabler. Leaders across industries see it as a catalyst for growth, offering scalability, flexibility, and faster time-to-market. The ability to launch new products and services in weeks instead of months, and to scale them up or down in line with demand, makes cloud an essential driver of innovation. Even more compelling is the financial agility: companies can avoid heavy upfront capital expenditure and instead adopt a pay-as-you-grow model.
In many ways, cloud has freed IT teams from traditional operational burdens. Resilience, redundancy, and automated backups are often built into the platforms, reducing the stress of managing physical infrastructure. But while these advantages are real, a dangerous misconception often follows: that because infrastructure is hosted in the cloud, the provider automatically assumes responsibility for all aspects of cybersecurity. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Shared Responsibility Model
The reality is that cloud security operates on a shared responsibility model. The provider is responsible for the cloud – keeping the physical data centres secure, maintaining the core infrastructure, and ensuring the availability of services. The customer, however, is responsible in the cloud – protecting applications, data, and user access.
This distinction is critical. A misconfigured access policy, an unpatched application, or sensitive data stored without encryption all remain the client’s responsibility, and attackers actively exploit these gaps. A 2024 global survey by Gartner revealed that over 80% of cloud breaches are due to customer misconfigurations or weak identity controls, not provider failures.
Securing the Cloud: Where Leaders Must Focus
To ensure the cloud remains an enabler rather than a liability, organizations must double down on their side of the shared model. Key areas include:
- Data Protection – Encrypt sensitive information, apply strong key management, and enforce data privacy across jurisdictions.
- Identity & Access Management (IAM) – Implement least privilege, multifactor authentication, role-based access, and secure API keys.
- Application Security – Continuously test applications, patch vulnerabilities, and secure APIs against injection or DDoS attacks.
- Network Security – Segment workloads, enforce Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), and mitigate lateral movement.
- Monitoring & Logging – Ensure visibility across workloads with SIEM and analytics to detect anomalies in real time.
- Backup & Disaster Recovery – Validate recovery plans regularly; ransomware resilience depends on it.
- Compliance & Legal Risks – Align with GDPR, POPIA, PCI-DSS, and other relevant frameworks to avoid legal and reputational exposure.
Why This Matters for Africa
Cloud adoption in Africa is accelerating at double-digit rates. IDC projects the African cloud market will exceed $5 billion by 2026, driven by financial services, telecoms, healthcare, and government digital transformation. But the same factors that make cloud appealing — agility, cost savings, and scalability — can quickly turn into risks if security is ignored. A single breach can erode customer trust, attract regulatory fines, and derail digital transformation programs.
From Risk to Resilience
The cloud is not inherently insecure, but it does require a shift in mindset. Leaders must stop assuming providers will “take care of everything” and start embedding security responsibilities into their cloud strategy. For African enterprises competing in a digital economy, the message is clear: cloud will unlock growth and innovation, but only if security keeps pace.
At DataGroupIT, we help organizations strike that balance – ensuring that cloud remains a business enabler, not a risk accelerator.