Cloud computing is transforming the way companies store and access business-critical applications and data. Syncsort’s 2018 report showed that IT professionals consider business continuity to be the topmost benefit of the cloud. This is no surprise. With the cloud, applications and data are typically stored and accessed securely from a central, off-site location so that business can continue as usual despite unplanned interruptions or incidents.

The average organization now uses 1,935 cloud services (McAfee) to accelerate business. This means that a lot of confidential and sensitive business data such as email, password-protected data, personally identifiable information (PII), payment data, and personal health information (PHI) now live in the cloud.