IT decision makers limit cloud use due to difficulties with compliance

A new study shows that 87 percent of IT Decision Makers (ITDMs) limit their use of the cloud because of the complexity of managing regulatory compliance.

According to the research by WinMagic, which spoke to ITDMs in Germany, India, the UK and US, 24 percent say this means they only work with a single cloud vendor in their infrastructure, rather than exploit the benefits of a multi-cloud environment.

Among other findings are that 63 percent feel the need to use multiple infrastructure management tools is a hugely restricting factor in their use of multiple cloud vendors. Looking specifically at managing security compliance across the enterprise, over a quarter (28 percent) say they would 'not be completely confident' IT systems met all the required processes and standards if an audit was called today. Seven percent go as far as to say there is 'a high risk of them failing.'

"The benefits of good security management tools are clear in the survey, but the pain caused by poor tools even more so, with companies restricted on their infrastructure choices and placed at greater risk of regulatory fines," says Mark Hickman, chief operating officer at WinMagic. "But poor security compliance is so much more dangerous, putting company data at risk of data breaches, both accidental and through theft, by hackers or even employees. WinMagic SecureDoc CloudVM offers a common platform with less complexity, more flexibility and that is highly secure on the widest range of virtualized and cloud environments, freeing ITDMs to pursue a multi-cloud mixed infrastructure and all the benefits that come with it."

On a positive note, platform-agnostic management tools that enable enterprises to implement solid security and compliance policies across on-premises and cloud providers are bringing proven benefits. ITDMs report a number of benefits in terms of efficiency and cost savings, these include 63 percent who have improved the efficiency of their systems, 57 percent having enforced compliance across the infrastructure, and 56 percent who say they are more secure.

You can find out more on the WinMagic website.

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