61% of organizations face security and compliance concerns amid cloud adoption

Fortinet has unveiled its 2025 State of Cloud Security Report, produced in collaboration with Cybersecurity Insiders. The report offers a comprehensive analysis of the latest trends, challenges, and strategies shaping cloud security today.

Cloud adoption is at the forefront of digital transformation, enabling organizations to stay competitive by offering greater agility and flexibility in an increasingly fast-paced market. In the current digital-first economy, companies are focusing on personalizing customer experiences, adopting work-from-anywhere (WFA) strategies, streamlining workflows, and optimizing operations for enhanced scalability.

However, while the cloud offers significant benefits, it also introduces unique security challenges. The report highlights key concerns such as safeguarding sensitive data, ensuring regulatory compliance, and maintaining visibility and control across complex hybrid and multi-cloud environments. These challenges are particularly pressing for security teams tasked with managing the evolving landscape of cloud infrastructures.

Key findings from this report include:

·       Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Strategies on the Rise: Over 78% of respondents utilize two or more cloud providers, underscoring the growing importance of multi-cloud approaches to enhance resilience and leverage specialized capabilities. 54% of organizations have adopted hybrid cloud models, integrating on-prem and public cloud environments to optimize flexibility and control.

·       Security and Compliance Top Concerns: Security and compliance issues are the primary barriers to cloud adoption, cited by 61% of organizations striving to meet regulatory requirements and protect sensitive data.

·       Skills Gap in Cloud Security Expertise: 76% of organizations report a shortage of expertise in cloud security, highlighting the need for automation, targeted upskilling, and resource optimization.

·       Low Confidence in Real-Time Threat Detection: The survey data highlights that 64% of respondents lack confidence in their organization’s ability to handle real-time threat detection.

·       Unified Cloud Security Platforms: The survey shows 97% of respondents prefer unified cloud security platforms with centralized dashboards to simplify policy configuration, ensure consistency, and enhance visibility across an organization’s cloud footprint.

·       Rapid Adoption of Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) and Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP): To address misconfigurations and compliance gaps, 67% of respondents are implementing CSPM and 62% CNAPP solutions to protect cloud environments.

Building a Resilient Cloud Security Posture

The 2025 State of Cloud Security Report underscores the growing complexity of today’s hybrid and multi-cloud environments and the urgent need for proactive strategies to address their evolving challenges.

Best practices for a more resilient security posture include:

·       Adopting unified platforms to simplify policy management and ensure consistency across environments.

·       Investing in training to bridge the cybersecurity skills gap.

·       Leveraging a cloud-native application protection platform that combines advanced tools like workload protection, configuration management, runtime defense to secure containers, and integrated solutions to enhance threat detection and remediate issues.

·       Using end-to-end encryption and automated risk remediation to improve data protection. 

“The report highlights organizations navigating the challenges of cloud adoption and recognizes the importance of safeguarding their cloud-based initiatives. As a result, they are significantly increasing their cloud security investments in the coming year. CISOs are prioritising their efforts to address critical security gaps, ensure compliance, and overcome technical complexities. Fortinet’s industry-leading solutions provide the tools with critical capabilities today’s organizations need, to protect their cloud infrastructures effectively by integrating AI-driven threat detection and zero-trust architectures which are the next wave of cloud security solutions,” Vivek Srivastava, Country Manager, India & SAARC, Fortinet.