Surveys Show Security and Data Protection are Top Concerns for Tailored Cloud Services

When it comes to choosing a cloud services vendor, 73 percent of companies rank security and data protection as their top concerns when choosing from among their options, according to a recent Tech Pro Research survey.

Industry cloud services are specifically designed for the challenges of a particular business sector, such as healthcare.

The survey also revealed that 36 percent of the respondents had already adopted cloud services for their industry. Also, another 16 percent stated that they had plans to adopt industry-specific cloud services within the next 12 months, while 23 percent said they have intentions to do so but no specific timetable.

When asked what were the most important factors in selecting an industry cloud service, operational costs came in second — behind security, with 65 percent of the respondents expressing it as a concern. Speed and agility followed at 55 percent, and implementation costs came in fourth at 49 percent.

In the overall industry, adoption of hybrid cloud solutions continued it’s accelerating pace — jumping from 63 percent to 77 percent of the industry, according to RightScale’s 2016 State of the Cloud Survey. The responses of 1,060 IT professionals were included in the report, which specifically asked about their adoption of cloud infrastructure. The survey was based on those who were already cloud buyers and users.

The RightScale survey also revealed the following:

• Respondents who reported using the cloud are running applications in both public and private clouds — an average of 1.5 public clouds and 1.7 private clouds. In addition, they indicated they are experimenting with an additional 1.5 public clouds and 1.3 private clouds.
• While security remained a top challenge for the respondents, with 29 reporting it as a concern, lack of resources/expertise edged it out as a No. 1 concern, with 32 percent noting it as their primary challenge.
• In all, 95 percent of the IT professionals responding to the survey are using the cloud — up from 93 percent in 2015.
• DevOps has been adopted by 74 percent of the respondents, a significant jump from the rate of 66 percent in 2015.

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Rich Banta

Managing Member at Lifeline Data Centers

Rich is responsible for Compliance and Certifications, Data Center Operations, Information Technology, and Client Concierge Services. Rich has an extensive background in server and network management, large scale wide-area networks, storage, business continuity, and monitoring. Rich is a former CTO of a major health care system. Rich is hands-on every day in the data centers. He also holds many certifications, including: CISA – Certified Information Systems Auditor CRISC – Certified in Risk & Information Systems Management CDCE – Certified Data Center Expert CDCDP – Certified Data Center Design Professional