BUSINESS STRATEGY
Adrian Taylor , VP of EMEA at A10 Networks
These decisions are driven by the changing landscape in which they are operating and the nature and intensity of the cyberthreats they face .
A10 Networks polled e-commerce providers to uncover their key security and management concerns and challenges when adapting to multicloud and the findings were illuminating .
Security concerns : Brand and reputation are crown jewels for e-commerce companies
Another sign of the tension between performance and security is evident in the 12 % of surveyed companies that had recorded slower traffic caused by security threat prevention or remediation .
There remains a trade-off between delivering a seamless , lightning-fast customer experience and ensuring that those customers are protected over the longer term .
Priorities have changed in a multicloud environment
E-commerce providers are acutely aware that trust is intrinsic to building customer loyalty . Anything that damages reputations and threatens customer confidence has a long-term impact on revenues .
It ’ s not surprising , therefore , that cyberdefacement and brand damage are top concerns for 62 % and 49 % of the businesses surveyed , respectively . Linked to this is concern over user data theft and credit card theft , identified as a top concern by 52 % and 36 % of respondents . Away from direct public-facing threats , more than one-third of companies cited DDoS attacks as a key concern . This is not surprising , given the increase in DDoS attacks and the potential loss of revenue .
Managing performance and mitigating security threats have a different complexion in a multicloud environment compared to traditional on-premises systems . Our research found that the complexity of multi-cloud IT has reshaped the priorities of IT leaders .
While traditional e-commerce priorities such as Disaster Recovery and the ability to scale to meet seasonal demand remain important , they have dropped down the list as the resource-intensive nature of multi-cloud management becomes apparent . More than half of the e-commerce leaders we surveyed said management complexity and cross-cloud security were the top challenges while achieving
The report indicated that some e-commerce providers are struggling to resolve this issue , with one in 10 reporting that they had lost availability due to a DDoS attack . Given that this directly affects revenue generation and creates a poor customer experience , organisations should focus on ensuring that their DDoS mitigation strategy and tools are effective .
Performance pitfalls : high traffic and security trade-offs are impacting uptime
On the performance side of the equation , 86 % of the e-commerce businesses we surveyed reported a significant increase in traffic . This is undoubtedly a result of the pivot to online purchasing made by millions during the pandemic , but in an industry well-used to handling seasonal spikes it was surprising that businesses reported downtime caused by traffic spikes as a top issue in the past year .
This is potentially related to the heavier performance demands from new technology standards , such as the encryption required by Perfect Forward Secrecy ( PFS ).
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