91 per cent of organizations have been successful in increasing security through the adoption of cloud services. Contradictorily, security still remains a top concern for many when it comes to the cloud. This finding comes from part two of the four-part Cloud Impact Study from Aptum, the global hybrid multi-cloud managed service provider. The report, titled The Security and Compliance Barricade, identifies common security, compliance and governance challenges impacting organizations undergoing cloud transformation.

The independent research reveals that more than half of survey respondents (51%) see security as the main driver behind cloud adoption. However, 38 per cent cite security and data protection as the primary barrier to cloud transformation.

Security and compliance play a critical role
Part one of the Cloud Impact Study, Bridging the Cloud Gap, found most survey respondents plan to take a hybridized approach to their cloud infrastructure, with more than half (59%) of respondents saying they will reduce their on-premises infrastructure to some degree and increase public cloud deployments within the next 18-24 months. A further 66 per cent intend to expand their private cloud workloads.

According to data found in today’s report, this expansion and diversification of infrastructure raises security and compliance issues among senior IT professionals, including:

•    Control and governance (82%)
•    Visibility through a single portal (81%)
•    Ability to meet requirements of compliancy audits (80%)

“Organizations are enjoying a newfound agility as they embrace hybrid cloud solutions, but scattered workloads present a security concern,” explains Craig Tavares, Global Head of Cloud at Aptum. “A cloud environment is only as secure as the polices and controls an organization has in place, which is why they need to be built into the formation of any cloud strategy. Although no single solution on its own can guarantee 100 per cent security, especially in a multi/hybrid cloud approach, experienced partners can assist organizations in choosing the right combination of security technologies that compliments their workloads no matter where they are hosted and ensure visibility across disparate environments.”

“Security teams are tasked with protecting a widening attack surface, often with limited budgets and resources, against bad actors who are employing the same sophisticated techniques as top cybersecurity providers,” said Dan Webb, VP of Partner Sales and Alliances, Alert Logic. “With the ubiquity of cloud and hybrid environments, containerization, and mobile, IoT, and other edge devices, the traditional notion of a perimeter is no more. To be effective, security solutions must enable total visibility across an organization’s IT estate to help organizations quickly identify, prioritize, and respond to all threats that surface.”Together, Aptum and Alert Logic partner to safeguard business critical data across the infrastructure and application stack, merging security technology, threat intelligence and 24/7 security experts to deliver security outcomes to businesses in an as-a-service model.

The study’s results reinforce the importance of incorporating security into cloud architectures from design through to implementation and transformation. The results call for organizations to take a holistic approach to cloud architectures, with security principles embedded in the design. By doing this, businesses can mitigate threats and minimize risks as they arise to create an environment safer than any on-premise or legacy alternatives.

The full findings of part two of the Cloud Impact Study, The Security and Compliance Barricade, can be found here.

Aptum’s Cloud Impact Study was created from the opinions of 400 senior IT professionals in Canada, the U.S. and U.K. across industries in financial services, IT, technology, telecommunications, manufacturing, retail, public and commercial sectors. The final two reports will focus on Costs and Budgets and Modernization Opportunities.

For part one of the report, Bridging the Cloud Gap, please visit here.

About Aptum Technologies
Aptum Technologies enables customers to unlock the potential of their data infrastructure to drive tangible business outcomes and maximize the value of their technology investments. Aptum’s Data Centre, Cloud, Hosting and Global Network solutions, underpinned with expert Managed and Professional Services, offer genuine choice and adaptability combined with international reach spanning North America, Latin America, Europe and the United Kingdom. Aptum is a portfolio company of Digital Colony, a global investment firm dedicated to strategic opportunities in digital infrastructure. For more information, visit www.aptum.com.