Mordor Intelligence recently valued the Houston Data Center market at 97.08 megawatts and expects it to hit 122.14 by 2030. This should not be surprising, especially now that the city has positioned itself as a global hub for tech innovations. Just recently, the Engines of Opportunity report ranked Houston’s universities and medical institutions among the top US metros for innovation.
This shows just how tech innovations like the cloud are changing things in this Texas city, providing reasonable grounds for businesses to advance. Remember, operating in the business world has never been as challenging as it is today. From hefty operational costs to capital expenditures, companies must be innovative if they are to stay relevant.
Thankfully, cloud technology offers an opportunity to overcome these challenges. Looking at the statistics, Deloitte recently reported that small and medium businesses that used this technology witnessed 21% more profit and expanded 26% faster. But with these benefits come challenges like security. So, how can companies take advantage of cloud services in Houston while overcoming these challenges?
The growing need for proper cloud security
Do you know that, according to Exploding Topics, over 600 million online attacks happen almost every day? As people increasingly turn to the internet, customer data becomes more available. And since data-based decisions are the new norm of modern business, it’s not surprising that the number of cyberattacks is increasing. This is no different in the cloud.
The large number of businesses—not only in Houston but also worldwide—welcoming this technology has made it attractive to cybercriminals. According to SentinelOne, more than eight in ten companies dealt with at least one cloud security incident in 2024 alone. Given that cybercriminals are always reinventing themselves, you can imagine what this figure could look like in the next few years.
Mark you: Data breaches are costly. Data from TechMagic shows you may need at least $4.88 million to get back on your feet. On top of that, you may lose up to 21% of customers who may never return to breached organizations. With customer acquisition and retention costs ever increasing, these are not losses you want to incur. As such, businesses are implementing AI-based security infrastructure to improve their cloud security. AI is helpful because it combines large data sets to identify and prevent attacks from happening in real time.
The compliance headache
Compliance can be a headache, especially when dealing with multiple providers with different policies and tools. This is why developing comprehensive security and compliance plans encompassing all cloud environments is handy. You’ll also need centralized management tools to help unify your security posture. And with automated tools, you can be sure to manage the environments more efficiently by taking advantage of real-time alerts and compliance checks.
But again, compliance doesn’t automatically equate to security. It only sets the foundation for security controls, such as adopting strong passwords. The controls do not mean complete protection, as an advanced attack can evade them by stealing active credentials from users. In other words, compliance frameworks primarily focus on shaping better practices to address known practices and may not work well with addressing zero-day threats.
To ensure compliance:
- Know what you have – whether it’s virtualized resources or microservices
- Identify a compliance program aligning with industry specs like PCI or HIPAA
- Learn different solutions and personalize your approach to improve efficiency
- Configure automated systems correctly while ensuring they’re safe
- Institute a reporting mechanism to facilitate audits
What is there to reap?
Although cloud technology has its share of challenges, it has a positive side. Take real-time analytics, for instance. At a time when Houston’s businesses are seeking to understand their customers better, data has become like the new digital gold. In fact, research shows that about two-thirds of organizations intend to make data-based decisions by 2026. However, real-time analytics can be a problem if convenient access to required data is not possible. Thanks to the cloud, businesses can now get ahead of such challenges.
Imagine being able to extract actionable insights without having to wait ages. This ensures no goods are wasted because you were able to tell a decline in customer demand in real time. Or better still, real-time updates help avoid understocking your business when customer demand is high. Interestingly, MoldStud suggests that implementing such approaches helps increase customer satisfaction by 36% and revenue growth by 32%.
The cloud’s scalability also makes it possible to handle growing volumes of data, especially when multiple devices connect. If you want to improve collaboration and communication among your employees, this technology is surely the way to go. Teams can now work on similar documents and projects from any location and device, so long as they have a great internet connection. Cloud tools also support integrated communication, such as chat and video conferencing, ensuring faster decision-making for both co-located and remote teams.
Seeing Houston businesses welcome cloud technology shouldn’t be surprising. Businesses are working hard to cut down on expenses while maximizing profits, and this technology offers a convenient way to do so. But that comes at a cost. You must implement robust security protocols in your environment; otherwise, you risk incurring significant financial and customer losses. Compliance can also be challenging, especially for those using multi-cloud environments. However, these challenges don’t mean that Houston businesses will stop adopting this technology, as they may find ways of overcoming them.
