Cloud adoption continues to grow among organizations of all sizes. According to the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report, 13 percent of small to midsize enterprises are expected to increase the number of workloads in the cloud in the next 12 months. Multi-cloud strategies are the norm for 86 percent of organizations.
The cloud enables organizations to implement new services quickly at a low upfront cost. It allows them to be more agile and responsive and to support distributed teams. Cloud infrastructure also tends to be more secure than on-premises infrastructure. However, cloud customers introduce weaknesses that put their systems and data at risk.
In one recent survey, 80 percent of organizations reported at least one cloud security breach in the past year, with 45 percent reporting four or more cloud incidents. According to the 2025 IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report, breaches involving public cloud storage cost about $5 million on average.
Why are cloud security breaches so common, and what can be done to reduce the risk?
Expanding Attack Surface, Growing Complexity
Two interrelated factors contribute to cloud vulnerabilities. One is the expanding attack surface. Every cloud application and platform introduces new security risks and increases the number of potential entry points for attackers.
Another is cloud operational complexity. This complexity stems from using multiple cloud providers and managing diverse services, as well as the rapid pace of change inherent in cloud-native environments. Traditional security models and processes struggle to address these challenges.
That helps explain why misconfigurations are the cause of 75 percent of cloud security breaches, according to a recent study by the Cloud Security Alliance. The sheer number and variety of cloud services, each with its own configurations and nuances, significantly increase the chance of human error. Gartner has projected that 99 percent of cloud security failures are the result of misconfigurations and other mistakes. It’s all too easy to leave a database exposed or grant excessive permissions.
Fragmentation and Unfettered Growth
Many IT teams are also struggling with fragmented visibility into the multi-cloud environment. Each cloud provider has its own set of management tools, making it difficult to gain a centralized view of all cloud assets and maintain consistent security policies and controls. IT teams are unable to monitor data movement and detect and track threats across multiple cloud platforms and services.
The growth of human and non-human identities accessing cloud environments makes managing permissions and access controls exponentially harder. Organizations also depend on numerous external vendors and integrated services, introducing a new layer of risk. A security breach or compliance failure within a third party can cascade into the organization’s own operations.
The ease and speed with which developers can spin up new cloud instances and services can outpace security oversight. This can result in a large shadow IT environment where assets are deployed without proper security hygiene and remain unmanaged and unsecured.
Addressing Multi-Cloud Security Threats
To mitigate these risks, organizations need to move beyond traditional security models and adopt new strategies, such as continuous monitoring, a zero-trust architecture, and a unified approach to security and operations across all cloud environments.
Automated tools are also essential. Automation provides the speed and scalability organizations need to manage and secure complex, heterogenous environments. It increases efficiency, reduces the risk of human error, ensures consistency, and enables faster threat detection and response.
Cerium’s data center team is here to help you address multi-cloud complexity and risk. We can help you transition from a cloud-first to a “cloud smart” model, ensuring that every workload is hosted on the right platform with proper management and security controls in place. We can also help you leverage AI-powered tools to gain greater visibility, automate cloud security validation and rapidly detect and respond to threats. Contact us to schedule a confidential consultation.
