'With a bit of energy and a steady focus, 2015 can still be your best year yet for cloud security'

New Year, new start. Whether its buying a gym membership, resolving finally to stop smoking or redoubling your efforts to land a dream job, the start of a new year is traditionally seen as an excuse to fix something thats wrong in your life.

Equally, a new year can drive new focus in our professional lives. Whether its to finally tackle that out of control Inbox, cut network downtime or get a handle on shadow IT within the organisation, resolutions are set with the greater good in mind.

But despite the best of intentions, it can sometimes be hard to keep our personal and professional resolutions. It may be the end of January, when no doubt many resolutions are already on the wane (where did I put that gym card?), but its not too late to get a grip on your employees shadow IT usage in 2015.

>See also:Why shadow IT is a blessing in disguise for IT departments

Shadow IT snuck into the spotlight in 2014 and, according to research, the phenomenon is set to grow ever more prevalent in 2015 this is no New Year fad! Netskopes January 2015 Cloud Report found that on average there are now 613 cloud apps in use within an organisation, up from 579 in Q3 2014.

Many of these apps are business-critical, but the report shows that 88% are not enterprise-ready. Perhaps most worrying is the fact that the majority of cloud apps are unsanctioned meaning that IT is totally in the dark about their use.

Faced with these sorts of challenges, its hardly surprising that data breaches are on the rise. IT departments are battling to remain vigilant to seemingly invisible threats. Cloud apps are a pain point for three main reasons: businesses cant manage what they cant see, and unsanctioned cloud apps will remain invisible without careful introspection; cloud apps are accessed by a growing number of devices, and networks are consequently becoming increasingly amorphous; and many cloud apps enable simple content sharing, making it easy to expose data and potentially sensitive information.

Vive la resolution

So how do you ensure your professional resolutions dont go the way of your Dry January efforts? Whats the solution? With careful planning, clever policy and staff coaching, it is possible to enjoy the productivity and convenience of cloud apps without the increased risk of data loss or theft. Here are five practical steps organisations can take to improve their cloud app security stance:

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