Lack of visibility and security concerns hinder cloud adoption

When it comes to migrating to the cloud, 65% of companies are concerned with security and 40% worry about their loss of physical control over data in the cloud. In particular, 69% of companies are afraid that migration to the cloud will increase the risks of unauthorised access, while 43% worry about account hijacking.

Security is gaining increasing attention from cloud technology and service providers, but the lack of visibility into sensitive data stored externally raises fears that are still holding back wider cloud adoption.

Netwrix surveyed more than 600 IT professionals worldwide, representing technology, manufacturing, government, healthcare, finance, education and other industries, to answer questions about cloud security, expectations from cloud providers and measures being taken to ensure data security.

Other key survey findings show that:

• A hybrid cloud deployment model is preferred by 44% of respondents as they transition from an on-premise infrastructure to a cloud-based model. Private clouds attract 37% of organisations prepared to invest in additional security.
• Companies migrating to the cloud plan to enforce internal security policies: 56% plan to improve identity and authentication management; 51% will utilise encryption; and around 45% of medium and large enterprises plan to establish auditing of changes and user activity.
• Overall, 13% of organisations reject the idea of adopting of cloud technology in the near future. However, 30% of them are ready to reconsider their decision as soon as cloud security mechanisms are improved.
• Some 30% of organisations already take advantage of improved cloud security, while more than 40% of organisations are ready to invest in additional security guarantees, if offered.
• Overall, 71% of enterprises perceive continuous auditing of cloud infrastructure as a very important part of security guarantees to ensure data integrity in the cloud.

“We wanted to find out what are the exact reasons that prevent companies from cloud adoption and taking advantage of all the benefits it offers,” said Alex Vovk, CEO of Netwrix. “The survey revealed that even though cloud is not a new technology, the market has a good potential to grow further. Advanced security solutions and true visibility into what is going on across the cloud infrastructure will help companies minimise security risks, take back control over business-critical assets and accelerate cloud adoption.”