Symantec's Avoiding the Hidden Costs of Cloud 2013 survey finds that departments are increasingly bypassing IT to order cloud services in an effort to save time
New cloud instances are becoming almost too easy for organizations to spin up, resulting in departments hosting classified information in the cloud without consulting IT, a new Symantec report finds.
Released on Wednesday, Symantec’s Avoiding the Hidden Costs of Cloud 2013 survey finds that departments are increasingly bypassing IT to order cloud services in an effort to save time. This finding echoes a recent Gartner study that finds technology spend is shifting away from IT budgets, and by 2020, technology spending outside of IT will account for 90 percent of total technology spending.
Symantec said 77 percent of organizations reported “rogue cloud deployments,” which have exposed confidential information at 40 percent of organizations, and exposed a quarter of organizations to account takeover issues, website defacement or stolen goods or services.
The ease of cloud deployment is having a negative impact on other areas of business as well, according to the study. Cloud storage is easy to deploy and scale, but cloud storage utilization is only at 17 percent. This means that organziations are paying for six times as much storage as they need.
While the tools exist for organizations to monitor their cloud spend and usage, clearly it is not something that has been widely adopted. Because of this, cloud providers have a massive opportunity to upsell these organizations on cloud management tools, and educate customers on the benefits the tools bring to keep costs in check and create organizational efficiency.
The survey also digs into how complicated cloud compliance can be for organizations. Nearly a quarter of organizations have been fined for privacy violations in the cloud within the past 12 months. Cloud providers have reacted to this concern by offering solutions around simplifying cloud compliance, including PCI DSS.
There seems to be some mistrust around cloud security from organizations as only 40 percent said that they are sure their cloud providers certificates company with internal standards. Cloud providers who offer expertise around security and compliance in the cloud can hopefully quash some of these cloud customer worries. Despite these doubts though, 94 percent of organizations are discussing cloud services, up from 75 percent last year.
Symantec commissioned ReRez to survey 3,236 organizations from 29 countries between September-October 2012.
Talk back: What do you think of Symantec’s findings? Are your customers managing their cloud services effectively? Let us know in a comment.
About Nicole Henderson
Nicole Henderson is the Editor in Chief of the Web Host Industry Review where she covers daily news and features online, as well as in print. She has a bachelor of journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto. You can find her on Twitter @NicoleHenderson.
