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More and more enterprises are moving towards multi-cloud environments, but data encryption and security remain a stumbling block, according to the latest research from workload security provider HyTrust.
The study, which polled more than 400 respondents at the recent VMworld event in Las Vegas, found that 60% of organisations polled plan to move to a multi-cloud model, while more (64%) said their pursuit of a hybrid cloud strategy will be multi-cloud and multi-vendor. Yet almost half (47%) admit security is the main concern when battling cloud deployment.
AWS was the most popular choice among respondents, cited by 26%, compared with 21% for Microsoft Azure. 30% of organisations who say they are using two or more clouds prefer a combination of AWS and Azure.
When it comes to security, 44% encrypt data using a cloud provider solution, while 28% deploy a separate data encryption solution. Worryingly, 28% say they are doing nothing to encrypt data being stored in a public cloud, backed up by 54% who say their old approaches to security would not work for future cloud deployments.
Back in July, Tony Connor, head of EMEA marketing at Datapipe, wrote in this publication on the key success factors in a multi-cloud strategy. “In order to ensure that a company’s multi-cloud deployment is successful, a business’ different cloud services need to function smoothly and cohesively,” Connor wrote. “What most agree on is that multi-cloud is about mixing and matching the best-of-breed solutions and services from different cloud providers to create the most suitable solution for a business.
“It minimises the amount of vendor lock-in and gives organisations more flexibility with their cloud solution over different price points and by leveraging relative strengths, advantages, and geographic locations.”
“The way we work is changing and in today’s fast-paced digital business environment, organisations need solutions that offer them the scale and security they need to operate efficiently while providing excellent service to their customers,” said Eric Chiu, HyTrust president and founder in a statement. “With a multi-cloud infrastructure, enterprises can achieve this scale, but choosing the correct partners for deployment and implementing a data security and encryption strategy is mission critical.”