Organizations are increasingly adopting multi-cloud environments, where they use services from multiple cloud providers to meet their diverse business needs. Multi-cloud strategies offer many benefits, such as improved reliability, flexibility, and reduced vendor lock-in. They also introduce significant challenges when it comes to compliance.
Maintaining compliance in a decentralized, multi-cloud environment requires businesses to navigate complex regulatory requirements, varied cloud service models, and the unique policies of each cloud provider
In this article, we will explore the key challenges of maintaining compliance in a multi-cloud environment and provide practical solutions for businesses looking to achieve and sustain compliance while leveraging cloud technologies.
The rise of multi-cloud environments
The adoption of multi-cloud environments has become a dominant strategy for organizations across various industries. Businesses are increasingly relying on different cloud providers to manage different aspects of their IT infrastructure, from compute and storage to networking and security. According to a 2023 survey by Flexera, over 90% of organizations are using multiple cloud providers. Some of the main reasons for adopting a multi-cloud strategy include:
- Avoiding Vendor Lock-In: By using services from different cloud providers, organizations reduce their dependence on a single vendor, which provides more flexibility and bargaining power.
- Redundancy and Risk Mitigation: Multi-cloud environments allow for the distribution of services across multiple providers, ensuring greater uptime, disaster recovery capabilities, and resilience to outages.
- Optimizing Performance: Different cloud providers offer varying strengths in areas like geographical reach, processing power, and specialized tools. Organizations can select the best provider for specific workloads or tasks.
- Cost Efficiency: With multiple cloud providers, businesses can take advantage of pricing models, discounts, and performance optimizations offered by different vendors, potentially lowering costs.
However, with these advantages come significant compliance challenges, which must be addressed to ensure data security, privacy, and adherence to industry regulations.
Key compliance challenges in multi-cloud environments
Managing compliance in a multi-cloud environment is an intricate task due to several factors, ranging from governance issues to legal complexities. As organizations adopt multi-cloud strategies, they increasingly face significant challenges related to compliance. These challenges arise from the complexity and diversity inherent in managing different cloud platforms, regulations, and the dynamic nature of cloud environments. We examine these issues in the following sections.
Diverse compliance requirements across providers
Each cloud provider offers a range of services, and these services may be governed by different compliance frameworks depending on the region, service type, and even the specific contract between the provider and the customer. For example, AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud each offer distinct compliance certifications that cover a range of standards, such as GDPR, SOC 2, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and more.
Managing these varying compliance requirements simultaneously can be tricky. When organizations leverage services from multiple providers, they may be subject to different sets of regulations depending on where the services are located and how the data is handled. For instance, a company using AWS for data storage may need to adhere to specific data residency laws in the European Union (GDPR), while using Google Cloud for machine learning services could require adherence to different policies related to data privacy.
Each cloud provider often has its own process for ensuring compliance, which may differ in its implementation. As such, organizations must continuously monitor each provider’s compliance posture and adjust their internal policies to accommodate these differences. Without a comprehensive strategy to track and integrate these regulatory requirements, organizations risk non-compliance and the penalties that may follow.
Data residency and sovereignty issues
Data residency laws require organizations to store and process data within specific jurisdictions, ensuring that data is subject to local regulations. As businesses extend their operations across multiple cloud platforms, this challenge becomes magnified. Each cloud provider operates data centers in different regions, each governed by its own set of laws and regulations. Organizations may unknowingly store or process data in regions that violate data residency laws, exposing them to significant legal risks.
For example, GDPR mandates that personal data of EU citizens be stored and processed within the European Economic Area (EEA), and certain sensitive data may not be transferred to non-EEA countries unless proper safeguards are in place. However, cloud providers may store data in multiple regions, including outside the EEA, and organizations must actively monitor and enforce the location of their data to stay compliant.
The complexity increases when an organization uses multiple cloud providers that may store data in different regions. This increases the risk of unintentionally violating data sovereignty rules, especially if businesses lack control over where their data is physically located.
Moreover, businesses using multi-cloud platforms often utilize hybrid cloud architectures, where sensitive data resides on-premise while other data is hosted in the cloud. Ensuring that this hybrid model complies with data residency requirements in different jurisdictions is a challenge that requires sophisticated data management strategies and tools.
Inconsistent security and governance policies
Cloud service providers each offer their own set of security tools and governance policies, but they may differ significantly in terms of how these tools and policies are implemented and enforced. For example, a provider like AWS offers AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to control access to resources, while Microsoft Azure offers Entra ID. While both IAM and Entra ID serve similar purposes, their configurations, features, and limitations differ, complicating security policy consistency across environments.
In a multi-cloud environment, ensuring that the same high security standards and best practices are implemented consistently across all cloud platforms is crucial. A lack of uniformity in security configurations can create potential vulnerabilities, especially if different teams are managing different cloud platforms without coordination. Misconfigurations or inconsistent settings can lead to gaps in security, such as improper access controls, misaligned encryption standards, and unmonitored endpoints.
Each cloud provider operates under its own governance policies and regulatory frameworks. These policies may differ in terms of data retention, auditing requirements, and incident response. Maintaining consistent governance policies across multiple clouds ensures compliance but can be difficult when each provider’s tools and reporting mechanisms vary. Without a centralized compliance management approach, organizations risk missing out on critical security measures, creating vulnerabilities in their multi-cloud architecture.
Lack of visibility and control
One of the most significant challenges in multi-cloud environments is the lack of centralized visibility. Different cloud providers have varying methods of monitoring and reporting on security and compliance. These reporting tools often operate independently of one another, making it difficult to gain a holistic view of the organization’s compliance posture across different platforms.
For instance, each cloud provider may have its own set of auditing tools—AWS CloudTrail, Azure Monitor, and Google Cloud’s Operations Suite are examples of tools specific to each platform. While each of these tools is effective within their own ecosystem, they don’t offer the cross-platform visibility required for monitoring and ensuring compliance in a multi-cloud architecture.
This lack of visibility can lead to significant gaps in compliance management. Organizations may struggle to track compliance violations, security incidents, or missed deadlines for regulatory requirements. Without proper visibility, it is also more difficult to quickly detect and respond to compliance failures, increasing the risk of penalties for non-compliance.
Centralized monitoring and reporting solutions can help organizations gain better control over their multi-cloud environments. However, these solutions must integrate well with the cloud providers’ native tools and offer a unified view of all activities and violations across the entire environment.
Constantly evolving regulatory landscape
The regulatory landscape for cloud computing and data privacy is continually evolving. As governments introduce new regulations and modify existing ones, organizations must adapt their compliance strategies to stay in line with the changes. This is especially true in highly regulated industries such as healthcare, finance, and government, where compliance requirements are often subject to frequent updates.
The introduction of new regulations such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) or amendments to the GDPR in the European Union necessitates that organizations adjust their compliance practices and procedures to meet new standards. In a multi-cloud environment, staying on top of regulatory changes becomes exponentially more difficult. Each cloud provider may offer new features, services, or certifications to meet the latest regulations, so organizations must continually adjust their security and compliance policies.
In addition to regional regulations, international standards such as ISO 27001, NIST Cybersecurity Framework, and SOC 2 frequently have different requirements and updates. Organizations must monitor and incorporate the changes in these standards to remain compliant across different cloud platforms. Failure to do so could expose them to fines, litigation, and reputational damage.
Complex audit trails
An often-overlooked compliance challenge in multi-cloud environments is maintaining a coherent and auditable trail of activities across multiple platforms. Audit logs are essential for tracking access to sensitive data, changes to configurations, and any deviations from compliance protocols. However, in a multi-cloud environment, logs are typically distributed across multiple cloud providers, each with different formats and levels of detail.
This fragmented nature of audit trails can complicate compliance audits and regulatory reporting. For example, an organization may need to demonstrate to auditors that it is compliant with GDPR by showing how access to personal data is managed and tracked. If audit logs are spread across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, it may be challenging to compile the necessary evidence for each provider, especially if their log formats differ.
Inconsistent logging and auditing practices can also delay incident response efforts. For example, if an anomaly occurs in one cloud provider’s environment, security teams may not be able to quickly access the relevant audit logs across all cloud platforms to investigate the incident fully. Lack of an integrated auditing solution means businesses may miss vital information that could help prevent data breaches or other security incidents.
Solutions for compliance management in multi-cloud environments
While the challenges of maintaining compliance in multi-cloud environments are significant, several strategies and tools can help organizations address these issues and ensure compliance across their cloud platforms. We suggest tactics here below.
Centralized cloud management platforms
One of the most effective solutions for managing compliance in multi-cloud environments is the use of centralized cloud management platforms. These platforms provide a unified interface for managing resources across multiple cloud providers, enabling organizations to enforce consistent security policies, governance measures, and compliance practices.
Many centralized management platforms integrate with popular cloud services, offering features such as:
- Unified Identity and Access Management (IAM): Centralized IAM systems enable organizations to manage user permissions and access rights consistently across all cloud environments.
- Automated Compliance Monitoring: These platforms can continuously monitor cloud services for compliance violations and generate alerts when non-compliant actions are detected.
- Centralized Logging and Reporting: A unified logging system enables organizations to aggregate logs from multiple cloud providers into a single, easy-to-analyze location. This ensures consistent auditing and improves visibility across the infrastructure.
Some popular centralized cloud management platforms include CloudHealth by VMware, CloudBolt, and Morpheus.
Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)
Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) tools are designed to continuously assess the security and compliance posture of cloud environments. These tools can identify risks, misconfigurations, and non-compliance with industry regulations. CSPM solutions offer a range of automated compliance checks, enabling organizations to maintain compliance without having to manually track changes across multiple cloud environments.
Key features of CSPM tools include:
- Automated Risk Assessment: CSPM tools automatically scan cloud configurations to identify potential security risks or violations of compliance standards.
- Continuous Monitoring: These tools offer real-time monitoring of security and compliance status across multi-cloud environments.
- Remediation Guidance: CSPM tools provide actionable recommendations for remediating security or compliance issues, helping organizations take corrective action swiftly.
Some leading CSPM tools include Prisma Cloud (by Palo Alto Networks), Check Point CloudGuard, and CloudHealth by VMware. Prisma Cloud offers comprehensive security and compliance features, integrating threat detection with risk management across multi-cloud environments. Check Point CloudGuard provides advanced security posture management, including real-time visibility and automated compliance monitoring. CloudHealth by VMware offers a cloud governance platform that helps optimize cost, security, and compliance across multi-cloud infrastructures.
Unified data protection strategies
To address data residency and sovereignty issues, organizations should implement a unified data protection strategy that spans their multi-cloud infrastructure. This involves:
- Data Classification: Identifying and categorizing data based on its sensitivity and regulatory requirements is key to ensuring compliance with data residency laws.
- Data Encryption: Encrypting data both at rest and in transit ensures that even if data crosses borders, it remains secure and compliant with privacy regulations.
- Geographical Restrictions: Some cloud providers offer data residency controls that allow organizations to restrict where data is stored and processed. Combining this with cloud-native encryption and data protection features ensures that organizations stay compliant with regional laws.
Collaboration with cloud providers
Given the complexity of managing compliance across multiple cloud platforms, organizations should actively collaborate with their cloud providers. Most major cloud providers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, offer a range of compliance tools and resources to help businesses navigate regulatory challenges.
These tools include:
- Compliance Documentation: Cloud providers often publish detailed documentation outlining their compliance certifications and the specific regulations they adhere to.
- Regulatory Support: Some providers offer consulting or support services to assist organizations with navigating complex compliance issues, especially in regions with stricter regulatory requirements.
- Dedicated Compliance Programs: Major cloud providers run compliance programs that help businesses streamline the process of achieving compliance across their cloud environments. These programs offer resources, audits, and best practices tailored to specific industries.
Ongoing training and awareness
Finally, it’s essential that organizations maintain an ongoing training program to ensure that their employees are well-versed in compliance requirements. This includes not only IT and security staff but also business users who interact with the cloud infrastructure.
Training initiatives should cover the following:
- Regulatory Requirements: Educating employees about the specific regulations governing the organization’s industry and the cloud platforms they use.
- Security Best Practices: Training employees on the importance of securing sensitive data and adhering to cloud security policies.
- Compliance Reporting: Ensuring that employees know how to identify and report compliance issues in the cloud environment.
Conclusion
Compliance in multi-cloud environments presents unique challenges due to the complexity of managing diverse cloud providers, varying regulatory requirements, and inconsistent security policies. However, with the right strategies and tools, organizations can overcome these challenges and maintain compliance across their cloud infrastructure.
By using centralized cloud management platforms, cloud security posture management tools, unified data protection strategies, and collaborating with cloud providers, businesses can ensure that they meet regulatory requirements. This strategy activates the flexibility, performance, and cost savings of a multi-cloud strategy. Continuous monitoring, employee training, and proactive risk management will help organizations stay ahead of compliance issues and maintain a strong security posture in complex multi-cloud systems.
