Tag Archives: Survey

“Rogue Clouds” Giving IT Staff Nightmares

Organizations are widely migrating to the cloud to gain competitive advantages around speed, agility and flexibility according to Symantec Corp’s recent Avoiding the Hidden Costs of Cloud 2013 Survey. In fact, more than 90 percent of all organizations are at least discussing cloud, up from 75 percent a year ago. Other key survey findings showed enterprises and SMBs are experiencing escalating costs tied to rogue cloud use, complex backup and recovery, and inefficient cloud storage. Rogue clouds are defined as business groups implementing public cloud applications that are not managed by or integrated into the company’s IT infrastructure.

Industry experts predict several key issues will arise in 2013 focused on the financial pressures and security challenges of cloud computing. Business continuity is seen as an important issue with the increase in cloud outages posing greater risks than security breaches. Over the holidays, a leading cloud service provider experienced an outage, which they quickly remediated. This outage impacted businesses and posed important concerns around data loss prevention, backup, time spent on data recovery and the associated costs. However, with advance preparation, organizations can build safe, agile and efficient clouds that will enable them to meet their business goals.

“By taking control of cloud deployments, companies can seize advantage of the flexibility and cost savings associated with the cloud, while minimizing the data control and security risks linked with rogue cloud use,” said Francis deSouza, group president, Enterprise Products and Services, Symantec.

77% of businesses saw rogue cloud deployments last year, 40% of them suffered exposure of confidential info.

Rogue Cloud Implementations

According to the survey, rogue cloud deployments are one of the cost pitfalls. It is a surprisingly common problem, found in more than three quarters (77 percent) of businesses within the last year. It also seems to be an issue experienced more by enterprises (83 percent), due to their larger company size, than SMBs (70 percent).

Among organizations who reported rogue cloud issues, 40 percent experienced the exposure of confidential information, and more than a quarter faced account takeover issues, defacement of Web properties, or stolen goods or services. The most commonly cited reasons for undertaking rogue cloud projects were to save time and money.

Cloud Backup and Recovery Issues

Cloud is complicating backup and recovery. First, most organizations use three or more solutions to back-up their physical, virtual and cloud data—leading to increased IT inefficiencies, risk and training costs. Furthermore, 43 percent of organizations have lost cloud data (47 percent of enterprises and 36 percent of SMBs), and most (68 percent) have experienced recovery failures.

Finally, most see cloud recovery as a slow, tedious process. Only 32 percent rate this is as fast and 22 percent estimate it would take three or more days to recover from a catastrophic loss of data in the cloud.

Inefficient Cloud Storage

One of the key advantages to cloud storage is how simple it is to provision. Sometimes this simplicity leads to inefficient cloud storage. Generally, organizations strive to maintain a storage utilization rate above 50 percent. According to the survey, cloud storage utilization is surprisingly low at 17 percent. There is a tremendous difference in this area between enterprises (which are utilizing 26 percent of their storage) and SMBs (which is a shockingly low seven percent). Furthermore, roughly half admit very little, if any, of their cloud data is deduplicated, further compounding the problem.

Compliance and eDiscovery Concerns

According to the survey, 49 percent of organizations are concerned about meeting compliance requirements in the cloud, and a slightly larger number (53 percent) are concerned about being able to prove they have met cloud compliance requirements. This concern about information in the cloud is well founded, as 23 percent of organizations have been fined for cloud privacy violations.

eDiscovery is creating additional pressure on businesses to quickly find the right information. One-third of businesses reported receiving eDiscovery requests for cloud data. Of those, two-thirds have missed their cloud discovery deadlines, leading to fines and legal risks.

Data in Transit Issues

Organizations have all sorts of assets in the cloud – such as web properties, online businesses or web applications – that require SSL certificates to protect the data in transit whether it is personal or financial information, business transactions and other online interactions. The survey showed companies found managing many SSL certificates to be highly complex: Just 27 percent rate cloud SSL certificate management as easy and only 40 percent are certain their cloud-partner’s certificates are in compliance with corporate standards.

Hidden Costs Are Easily Avoided

The survey shows ignoring these hidden costs will have a serious impact on business. However, these issues are easily mitigated with careful planning, implementation and management:

Focus policies on information and people, not technologies or platforms

Educate, monitor and enforce policies

Embrace tools that are platform agnostic

Deduplicate data in the cloud

Symantec’s Avoiding the Hidden Costs of Cloud 2013 Survey

Symantec’s 2013 Cloud Survey is a result of research conducted by ReRez in September-October 2012. The full study represents 3,236 organizations from 29 countries. Responses came from companies with a range of five to more than 5,000 employees. Of those responses, 1,358 came from SMBs and 1,878 came from enterprises.

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Cloud Gives CFOs Chance To Get Involved With IT

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Google research says financial bosses will take more active role in buying IT services

Cloud computing will give chief financial officers (CFOs) the chance to become more influential on the technology side of a business, according to a new study.

According to the research by Vanson Bourne on behalf of Google, half of the senior financial decision makers quizzed believe that as the adoption of cloud computing within enterprise continues to grow, CFOs will become more influential in the purchasing and management of IT services.

The survey also revealed that many CFOs agree with the IT department that cloud computing can have a positive impact on the business.

Two-thirds (66%) of respondents the cloud increases the IT department’s contribution to corporate strategy while 69% believe that cloud computing increases the IT department’s ability to innovate.

Many CFOs are pinning their hopes on cloud computing: a massive 93% said that cloud computing will be important to the success of their company over the next 12 to 18 months, and 94% believe that cloud computing provides their business with quantifiable benefits, such as reduced IT maintenance costs (44%), reduced IT spend (47%) reduced operational costs (47%) and improved process efficiency (34%).

Most business surveyed (68%) said their company has either already implemented cloud services or has plans to.

“The benefits of cloud computing go far beyond the obvious cost savings on software and reducing the burden of maintenance. The strategically significant role it can play within an organization in terms of driving innovation and productivity is making it an increasingly attractive option for businesses that want to remain competitive and agile,” he added.

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Cloud Adoption Increases Security for SMBs

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Small and medium businesses have a lot to gain through adopting cloud computing, a recent research from comScore – sponsored by Microsoft – shows.

Not only would these companies benefit from important time and money savings when adopting the cloud, but they also see increased security levels, the aforementioned research shows.

According to the survey, which was conducted among both cloud and non-cloud SMBs in the U.S., India, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, most businesses who chose to make the move to the cloud consider it a great step in their evolution.

The study shows that SMBs are increasingly more confident on the benefits of cloud computing after adoption, and that twenty percent of companies spend less on security, while only 4 percent of non-cloud businesses suggest the same

Forty-one percent of cloud users considered the service provider as being entirely responsible for the security of their information, which suggests both the level of confidence in such services and that they need to be educated on their responsibilities on the area.

Fifty-seven percent of surveyed companies said that they felt that responsibility was shared with their cloud provider.

This also means that companies that offer cloud services have to ensure that their software is constantly updated so that they can meet the latest requirements in terms of security and reliability.

Richard Saunders, director, Trustworthy Computing, explained to Softpedia in a phone briefing that Microsoft is focused on improving the security of their cloud products.

Every second Tuesday, the Redmond-based giant releases security updates to users, in a process that also makes security updates delivery more predictable and transparent.

Microsoft is one of the main players in the provision of cloud services, with an offering that includes products such as Windows Azure, Windows Intune, Office 365 or Dynamics CRM, available for all customers interested in benefiting from public cloud capabilities.

Moreover, the software giant offers private cloud products as well, including Windows Server, SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange, Lync, SharePoint and the like, all of which are being periodically updated with patches for discovered vulnerabilities and with new features.

Of course, this does not mean that all targeted companies install these updates, due to a variety of reasons, including the costs and the lack of expertise to adjust the business to these updates.

Other findings of the survey also include:

Forty-five percent said it was easier to integrate systems.

Thirty-eight percent said they spent less time managing security.

Thirty-four percent were more confident in their company’s regulatory compliance.

Forty-two percent said the cloud made it easier for them to scale their business to explore new markets.

Forty-one percent said they were able to employ more staff in roles that directly benefit sales or growth.

Thirty-nine percent said they were able to invest in product development or innovation.

Thirty-seven percent felt that they benefited from improved agility and competitiveness.

Under Impacts, improved security and agility/competitiveness and better scalability are benefits perceived by cloud users.

All in all, it seems that cloud computing is indeed helping SMBs become more competitive and enjoy important savings and increased security levels.

However, not all of them consider the cloud as reliable. Those who haven’t adopted it yet are worried of transparency and identity security say that industry standards for cloud security would help them reconsider their position on the matter.

Non-cloud users are also concerned about security (40 percent) and the cost of transitioning (33 percent) to a new business model, yet the research shows that, in fact, they have nothing to fear on this.

However, Richard Saunders also notes that businesses need to make their own decision when it comes to cloud computing, but that they also need to make informed decisions, and that Microsoft is one of the companies focused on ensuring that this indeed happens.

Author: Ionut Arghire
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Cloud Computing Key To Business Success

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A massive 93% of financial decision makers believe that cloud computing will be important to the success of their businesses over the next couple of years, according to research.

Vanson Bourne questioned 100 senior executives within the finance departments at UK companies for the research, which was commissioned by Google.

It also found that 68% of businesses surveyed had either already implemented cloud services or have plans to.

A total of 66% makers believe the cloud increases the IT department’s contribution to corporate strategy and 69% believe that cloud computing increases the IT department’s ability to innovate.

The importance of cloud computing to business strategy means the finance departments will get more involved in IT decision making. The research found that half of the finance executives believe that, as cloud computing becomes a business strategy, the CFO will have more influence over IT decisions.

Of the surveyed executives, 94% believe that cloud computing provides their business with quantifiable benefits, while 64% said cloud computing is more beneficial than traditional outsourcing

“To date, enterprise cloud adoption has been largely driven by the IT function. However, today we see ourselves having more discussions with CFOs, COOs and CEOs and it is not hard to see why. The benefits of cloud computing go far beyond the obvious cost savings on software and reducing the burden of maintenance,” said Thomas Davies, Head of Google Enterprise for the UK and Ireland. “The strategically significant role it can play within an organisation in terms of driving innovation and productivity is making it an increasingly attractive option for businesses that want to remain competitive and agile.”

What are the benefits of the cloud?

44% – reduced IT maintenance costs
47% – reduced IT spend
47% – reduced operational costs
34% – improved process efficiency

Author: Karl Flinders
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End-Users Still Hazy On Benefits Of Cloud Computing

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According to a survey carried out by hosted IT service provider Rise, 91 per cent of businesses strongly feel more needs to be done to educate end-users about the business benefits of adopting a Cloud infrastructure.

The survey, conducted at a recent IT industry event, also identified that when it came to Cloud uptake the biggest concern for firms is where their data is being stored, with 64 per cent of surveyed participants identifying this as a key issue. It also indicated that fears around security and potential loss of data were a big deterrent for businesses not investing in a Cloud infrastructure.

The research also highlighted that with over half of respondents still unsure about the business benefits of Cloud Computing, IT vendors need to take on a bigger role when it comes to educating end-users.

According to Steve Holford, a director at Rise, one of the biggest barriers to Cloud uptake is lack of education. “For a lot of firms, right from SMEs to large enterprises, Cloud uptake still remains something to be approached with caution. Last year, the message we were hearing from customers was: What is Cloud Computing? This year has seen that move on – people are aware of Cloud Computing but are unsure how this can be applied to their business. They understand that there are benefits to Cloud adoption but there is confusion around how this can be seen within their organisation.”

The key findings include:

• 95 per cent of end-users saw data security as one of, if not the most important factor when it comes to dealing with clients

• 86 per cent felt that data security and control were the main concerns around Cloud Computing

• Despite security concerns over Cloud Computing being addressed, over 35 per cent of end-users are still hesitant about investing in Cloud

• An incredible 91 per cent feel that the current level of education and information being provided around Cloud Computing is insufficient

• Of this 91 per cent, 60 per cent state it is the job of the IT vendor to provide better support, with 26 per cent seeing it as the role of the VARs and 14 per cent want greater input from the Government

Holford, concluded: “The results of the survey support the trends that we are seeing. Education is one of the biggest barriers to Cloud uptake, and getting end-users to understand the benefits of Cloud Computing, especially the benefits to them specifically, is key to driving demand. One of the key ways end-users can do this is by talking to IT service providers or resellers, who are fully equipped to inform, educate and update them on Cloud Computing, and discuss how Cloud can be applied to their business model. Security is another big concern for end-users and again, through speaking to resellers and IT vendors these fears can be addressed. The media also plays a key role – we are starting to see more articles cutting through the hype of Cloud Computing, to focus on more meaningful articles that will benefit and educate end-users. At Rise we understand the concerns and are working with our partners to drive better understanding and awareness”.

The survey, conducted in May 2011 at an IT industry event, surveyed a variety of resellers, distributors and channel partners from SMEs up to large enterprises regarding Cloud uptake.

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Vast Majority of Small Businesses Unaware of Cloud Computing

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Nearly three-quarters (71 percent) of small businesses surveyed by Newtek Business Services said they have never heard of cloud computing, underlining a fundamental lack of knowledge about the technology. Based on a poll of approximately 1,800 respondents, the survey found only 26 percent of those who had heard of cloud computing could describe what it was.

Seventy-one percent of respondents acknowledged they do not keep their critical business files and data backed up offsite—only 29 percent of respondents said they did. Barry Sloane, president and CEO of Newtek said cloud computing would be the next important trend in the U.S. economy for businesses large and small, and there is no doubt that business owners will embrace the cloud concept and over time gravitate towards its massive benefits. “We surveyed over 1,800 independent business owners and discovered that the concept of cloud computing has begun to disseminate into the marketplace, due primarily to large advertising programs by entities like Microsoft, Cisco and others,” he said. “Business owners will need to understand what the cloud is and what it can do for their businesses in the areas of cost control, data security, data protection, accessibility, efficiency and productivity to facilitate a smooth running technological platform for their business.”

Sloane said about 25 percent of their business owners said they understood what cloud computing was, but when they drilled down deeper most, 78 percent, thought that their data was secure. Meanwhile, 71 percent stated their data was not backed up offsite. “Server huggers beware,” he warned. “The cloud is approaching; the security blanket of the server in the closet onsite and having an assistant backup important business data and confidential client information needs to be behind us all. Our survey this month is quite telling about what independent business owners really need to know about the cloud and how misinformed they are about data safety and security.”

A report earlier this month from by Verio, a provider of online business solutions to SMBs, came to a similar conclusion, finding more than two-thirds of respondents are uncertain if they would purchase a cloud solution in the near future. However, despite this lack of knowledge, respondents sought the benefits of a cloud offering, with 21 percent citing the ability to share resources and 20 percent citing on-demand resources as important, showcasing a need for education on cloud benefits specific to small businesses.

With the proper knowledge and education on cloud technology, 20 percent of decision makers stated they were “likely” or “very likely” to implement a cloud computing solution in the next 12 months while almost 10 percent were “likely” or “very likely” to implement in the next three months, according to survey results.

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CIOs Predict Hybrid Cloud Will Dominate IT Architecture

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Cloud computing will become the dominate architecture for IT, according to a Colt study.

The survey of 500 CIOs across UK, France, Germany, Spain and Benelux highlights that, while few businesses in Europe have company-wide implementations of cloud computing to date (16%), many believe the cloud will be their most significant IT operating method by 2014 (60%).

The biggest challenge adopting cloud computing is ease of transition (58%). Quality assurance (55%), cost justification (55%) and regulation on security and control of customer data (54%) were also top concerns.

There is also growing interest among CIOs in private clouds, but these overcome security concerns while compromising on scalability and cost savings. One in five companies (21%) say they prefer a hybrid approach.

Through a hybrid cloud CIOs can balance the security strengths of a private cloud with lower costs and stability available when using a public cloud service.

Mark Leonard, executive vice-president responsible for the CIO office at Colt, said: “Companies are evaluating and deploying cloud services at a higher rate year-on-year, driven by the need to be more agile and responsive in today’s business climate. There is now a demand to bring together computing and network services supported with advanced systems that deliver a truly integrated end-to-end experience and ensure the predictable quality of service.”

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Four in 10 Small Businesses Planning Cloud Computing

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Almost 40 per cent of SMEs expect to be paying for one or more cloud services within three years, according to a Microsoft report.

The IT vendor announced the results of its third annual worldwide study into how SMEs will use cloud services over the next three years. A total of 3,258 companies with 2-250 employees were surveyed in 16 countries.

The survey found that 39 per cent of SMEs expect to be paying for one or more cloud services within three years, an increase of 34 per cent from today (29 per cent).

SMEs are most likely to have a hybrid IT environment, using the cloud for workloads such as business-class email, collaboration, accounting and payroll, according to the report. The number of cloud services SMEs pay for will nearly double in most countries over the next three years, it noted.

Other findings of the report include:

-Those SMEs paying for cloud services will be using 3.3 services – up from less than two services today

-82 per cent of SMEs say that buying cloud services from a provider with local presence is important

-The larger the business, the more likely it is to pay for cloud services. For example, 56 per cent of companies with 51-250 or more employees may pay for an average of 3.7 services in three years’ time

Marco Limena, a vice president of business channels at Microsoft, said: “Cloud adoption will be gradual, and SMEs will continue to operate using a hybrid model with an increasing blend between off-premises and traditional on-premises infrastructure, for the foreseeable future.”

“As cloud computing becomes more ubiquitous and SMEs’ existing IT becomes outdated, adoption will grow rapidly. Hosting service providers should consider the appropriate sales, delivery and support models to target larger SME customers that are more likely to pay for cloud services.”

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How to Tell If Your Company is Ready for the Cloud

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Want to know if your organization has the right characteristics and culture to successfully adopt cloud computing? I recently ran across a new cloud computing study that might provide the answer.

“Our approach was to try to look into the future and determine what capabilities and kinds of organizations are necessary for a successful migration to the cloud,” co-author Arun Sundararajan told me.

Sundararajan (associate professor of Information, Operations and Management Services at the NYU Stern School of Business) and two colleagues surveyed 23 CIOs and high-level IT managers at U.S. and Canadian companies that use or have evaluated use of cloud services. The companies ranged in size from 180 to 170,000 employees, with annual revenues that varied from $1 billion to $100 billion.

The take-away? A strong partnership between IT and business units, operational agility, and a knack for modeling new technologies to fit unique business needs are critical in order to make the most of cloud computing.

A key finding was that organizations with a strong culture of partnership between IT and business units are likely to find the most success in the cloud. What’s more, these stakeholders must be nimble and creative in combining available technologies and processes in ways that best meet business needs.

Agility doesn’t stop with implementation however. The capabilities of cloud solutions will advance over time—probably very quickly—and smart organizations will commit to a constant adoption of new services. In other words, you can’t just implement it and forget it.

Technology consultants often stress the importance of managing relationships with public-cloud suppliers, and the survey validates that advice. Sundararajan says organizations that have previously outsourced IT functions hold an advantage because they have experience in managing third-party relationships.

“Understanding and managing vendor relationships is especially important with cloud computing because a better vendor relationship gives you a better view of the capabilities of the provider’s services—more so than we expected,” he says.

And what about security, that enormous elephant in the room? Sundararajan told me that the survey didn’t ask respondents about the safety of sensitive data and apps in the cloud. But in follow-up interviews, researchers did find—and this is no surprise—that respondents remain hesitant to migrate apps that are mission-critical or central to their competitive advantage. This perceived lack of security is the real hurdle for cloud computing, but we’re starting to see signs that CIOs are gaining trust in the level of security provided by cloud vendors

Sundararajan says most respondents who already use cloud services have adopted mainstream SaaS solutions, such as customer relationship management (CRM) and human resources functions. Implementations of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) were comparatively rare among respondents.

Lower costs and rapid implementation are seen as top advantages of the cloud model. In order of importance, the primary benefits of cloud computing were cited as:

* limited upfront investments
* quick implementation
* the ability to convert IT services from fixed to variable

Another frequently mentioned advantage was access to best-of-breed applications that SaaS offers.

The survey results are pretty encouraging for companies considering a move to the cloud because they indicate that the cloud can help organizations grow their overall value—and not just cut IT costs.

“But you can’t achieve that unless you have the right organizational capabilities,” Sundararajan says. “That was surprising in a good way, because it told us something new about the economic value of SaaS.”

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Tag Archives: Survey

CIOs Predict Hybrid Cloud Will Dominate IT Architecture