Cloud spending hits $723 billion in 2025, yet 44% of executives admit a third of their budget is wasted. Even worse: 99% of cloud security failures are the customer's fault, mostly from simple misconfigurations. In this episode of Cybersecurity Unmasked, we break down the seven critical mistakes bleeding money and creating security gaps.

The cloud delivers real value when paired with professional IT infrastructure and cloud migration support, complete enterprise technology and business solutions, and comprehensive cloud security and threat protection. Without proper strategy? You're paying premium prices for storage junk while leaving data exposed.

The 7 costly mistakes:

1. Hidden cost trap (egress fees and storage tiers create 6-figure surprises)
2. Security blind spot (misconfigurations cause 70% of breaches at $3.86M each)
3. Poor data management (over-provisioning by 30-50%)
4. Performance underestimation (apps that ran fine on-prem now crawl)
5. Skipping disaster recovery (138 hours average downtime = $5K/minute)
6. Over-complicated architecture (Kubernetes overkill adds cost and risk)
7. Wrong provider choice (vendor lock-in through massive exit fees)

Your defense: The 3-2-1-1-0 backup rule3 copies, 2 storage types, 1 off-site, 1 immutable (ransomware can't touch it), 0 errors through testing. Untested backup = hope, not a plan.

Quick wins:MFA reduces compromise by 99%, automated lifecycle policies cut storage costs 35-50%, and proper resource tagging creates accountability. The shared responsibility model means the provider secures infrastructure, but you control data, encryption, and access. They give you a vault, you still lock the door.

Cybersecurity Unmasked EP 30 because if your team is fighting infrastructure, what's being neglected in your actual business?

Read more: Cloud Computing Mistakes Businesses Need to Avoid