Cloud Apps and Productivity

Public Cloud is Endorsed but it is Embraced?

At the end of October, the Chief Information Officer for the United States of America, Tony Scott, stated in no uncertain terms that the cloud is a secure place to store data and the sooner that CIOs embrace cloud, the better for them. When discussing the big cloud providers, Mr. Scott states that public cloud storage providers “do a much better job of security than any one company or any one organization can probably do.” Despite the glowing endorsement from the technology top-dog of the Federal Government, there is still some concern from CIOs about making the jump to 100% public cloud data storage.

35% of CIOs are primarily concerned with cloud security according to a study of CIO’s by Piper Jaffray in 2015. This percentage of security concerns among CIOs is actually up from 31%, as reported in the 2014 CIO Survey! Given the amount of data security breaches in the last 18 months, it’s no wonder off-premises data security is a top concern. Interestingly, the second most popular concern about cloud data storage was performance.

Lately, there have been a few major companies that have offered their own endorsement of public cloud providers, as well as an approval of public cloud data security. Capital One, is one such company, recently speaking about their continued approval of Amazon Web Services. The top public cloud providers include: Amazon Web Services, who maintain a clear hold of the top spot when it comes to preferred data storage of enterprises, Microsoft Azure, Google, and Rackspace.

Many CIOs are opting for the adaptations of a ‘best of both worlds’ approach to cloud computing – the Hybrid Cloud. Hybrid offers the benefits that public cloud services offer, with the security and peace of mind that is associated with a private data center. In fact, many IT experts feel that hybrid cloud market is the fastest growing market in the technology industry. Gartner reported that 75% of large enterprises represented by their survey planned on having some type of hybrid cloud solution deployed by the end of 2015. Similar to the endorsement of public cloud by Capital One, fashion powerhouse, Coach, Inc., is a promoter of hybrid cloud.

Despite the continued consideration that is being given to cloud computing and all of the benefits and concerns associated with it, the majority of CIOs are planning on increasing the amount of budget they are allotting to cloud computing options in 2016. There is no doubt that cloud services will continue to give CIOs and IT managers a lot to think about when planning the technological strategy for their enterprise.

Are you moving to the cloud? All in with the public cloud, or holding back with a hybrid cloud solution? Our team is here to guide you every step of the way. Reach out to us today to explore the best solution for you and your team!

Ruben Lombrana