Organisations across the Middle East are increasingly adopting cloud applications and platforms . Given the remote nature of modern workforces , it ’ s important they do not overlook security . Arie de Groot , Senior Director Middle East at Netskope , tells us why organisations should be prioritising cloud security and how Netskope is helping its customers to achieve this .

What would be your message to organisations on building security into their Digital Transformation strategies ?

When it comes to building an information security strategy , it ' s all about the move to the cloud . Organisations need to be aware that their existing security tools and infrastructures are blind to the new languages of the cloud . The old-fashioned model that organisations used to have – where you protect your datacentre and then backhaul traffic from mobile or home users to the datacentre and block or allow users to access a certain static website – no longer works .

Why ? Users are no longer full-time in the office . As an organisation , you need to cooperate with customers , partners and contractors and simply saying that certain websites are allowed while the rest are blocked no longer works . Employees now use their own devices for corporate purposes and need access to numerous cloud applications so something needs to change .

Similarly , the old model of using a VPN is no longer scalable or adequate . So , when we talk about strategy , organisations need to look at two things : 1 ) security and 2 ) speed of security . If security tools are slow , or slow down users , people will try to bypass it .

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