Bangalore, India | September 12, 2024 – Akamai Technologies, Inc., the cloud company that powers and protects life online, today revealed in a new study that Asia’s digital native businesses (DNBs) face growing security and technology complexity challenges as they accelerate cloud adoption, posing a risk to sustained business growth.

In the study, titled Asia’s Digital Native Businesses Prioritise Security for Sustainable Growth, DNBs are defined by their aggressive technology adoption. These businesses move at the speed of tech to keep up with customer demands to work, live, and play online. Akamai’s study reveals that 9 in 10 DNBs prioritize efficiency and productivity over the next 12 months and are investing in technologies such as cloud computing and application program interface (API)-enabled microservices. According to IDC, DNBs are expected to spend up to $128.9 billion on technology by 2026, with the highest spend growth rate in cloud-based technologies at 37.3%.

“Cutting-edge tech is at the core of DNA for digital native businesses — but this is both an opportunity and a challenge. Accelerated tech adoption is the potential Achilles’ heel for DNBs, with IT complexity ramping up to expose critical cyber risks that threaten cloud implementations and potentially business performance,” said Jay Jenkins, Chief Technology Officer for Akamai Cloud Computing. “For DNBs who are ‘born in the cloud’ to leverage their full potential, these businesses must find ways to maximize cloud performance and embrace a multicloud approach to avoid vendor lock-in, enhance flexibility, and maximize cloud service usage and costs.”

Tech-first mindset hampers DNBs’ cybersecurity posture

DNBs embrace cloud-native design principles and leverage technology as a key differentiator to stay ahead of the competition. With infrastructure built around microservices that operate independently and communicate through APIs, DNBs are able to scale and improve time to market. According to Akamai’s new study, 74% of DNBs have either fully migrated to the cloud or are adopting cloud technologies.

Respondents in Australia and New Zealand are shifting their perspective on cloud technology from being seen as a disruptive force to becoming an essential business component, with 97% either adopting cloud solutions or exploring cloud adoption. Meanwhile, in India, DNBs are focused on growth and innovation, with the highest AI integration within cloud infrastructure at 98%. Nearly all DNBs in India are either already using cloud solutions or are exploring cloud adoption. Furthermore, as DNBs in India evolve, they are pursuing sustainable growth by emphasizing security, cost optimization, and thorough vendor evaluation. Given their rich history of technological innovation, India’s digital natives prioritize vendor performance more than their regional counterparts, ranking second in ASEAN.

Asia’s DNBs are quick to embrace cloud technologies; this can quickly become a complex matrix of software, systems, and services that exposes DNBs to greater cyber vulnerability. Managing security implications remains a consistent challenge for DNBs, regardless of where they are at in their cloud journey, with 75% of them viewing security as the biggest gap in cloud infrastructure performance and capabilities — above other issues like network latency, data storage, data retrieval, and compute resources. In fact, 44% of respondents stated that the biggest challenge in addressing the security gap stems from rising IT infrastructure complexity.

This rush to the cloud has resulted in critical challenges that threaten to derail the pursuit for performance, and DNBs can no longer ignore the increased cyberthreats that come with their pursuit for business growth.

Stepping up cloud optimization and API security

DNBs are inherently “born in the cloud,” but securing life online remains a challenge for them as they struggle to leverage the full potential of emerging technology in cloud, data, and AI. They are prime targets for cyberattacks due to their extensive use of APIs and cloud-based infrastructures, exposing them to greater risk for phishing, account compromise, and ransomware, compared to traditional companies.

Akamai’s research revealed that DNBs are prioritizing API security at the top of their action list to address cloud security issues, with 9 in 10 stating that API security is a critical or important product feature when evaluating a cloud or security provider. Eighty-seven percent of DNBs state that security features outweigh even performance, reputation, scalability, and cost, when choosing a cloud provider. To combat increasing cyberthreats, DNBs will need support from their technology partners to identify potential weak links that can be exploited by cyber adversaries.

“APIs are the connective tissue in modern cloud-native infrastructures. To ensure agile, flexible, and secure operations, a modern security framework must provide advanced API security measures, regular API security audits, and high visibility into API activity,” said Jenkins.

Sectors most at risk include gaming, high technology, video media, and commerce. In the pursuit of innovation and speed to market, DNBs may launch applications and processes using APIs before security teams can properly evaluate them, resulting in increased exposure to potential cyberthreats. In ASEAN, phishing is a major concern for DNBs, leading them to prioritize investment in anti-phishing technologies more than their counterparts in the APJ region. Phishing tactics have evolved from email-based attacks to now include mobile devices and social media platforms. As a result, ASEAN invests more heavily in anti-phishing technologies compared to its counterparts in the APJ region.

As Asia’s DNBs tackle these complexity and security challenges on their cloud adoption journey, such insights provide a view into the path ahead for businesses of all backgrounds and cloud maturity. Cloud technologies and API-enabled services are now critical enablers of modern digital business, which will require new tools, skills, and partners to pave the way for successful adoption and implementation.