Veritas Technologies has announced the results of a global survey spanning thirteen countries indicating that the majority of global organisations (56 percent) operate with a cloud-first mentality when it comes to deploying new applications and managing workloads. However, the study reveals that significant misconceptions exist on the responsibility for data management, with 69 percent of organisations wrongfully believing data protection, data privacy and compliance are the responsibility of the cloud service provider.

Only one percent of organisations reported that they will not be adopting cloud over the next two years.

The Truth in Cloud study, conducted by market research firm Vanson Bourne, surveyed 1,200 global business and IT decision makers revealed that customers are embracing the multi-cloud as a key component of their business strategies. Within the survey, customers indicated they use a variety of cloud service providers, including public clouds and hosted private clouds. With respect to Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) specifically, over two-thirds (67 percent) of organisations state they use, or plan to use, two or more cloud providers.

Forty-two percent say they are using, or plan to use, three or more cloud providers, with common goals of improving resiliency and data security as well as reducing capital expenditures (Capex) and operating expenses (Opex).

Although organisations are adopting a multi-cloud approach, the research shows that when it comes to public clouds specifically, there are likely misconceptions around which party holds the ultimate responsibility for data management: the customer or the cloud provider.

Key findings include:

• More than eight in ten (83 percent) of organisations that use or plan to use IaaS believe that their cloud service provider takes care of protecting their data in the cloud.
• More than two-thirds (69 percent) of respondents believe they can place all responsibility for data protection, data privacy and compliance on cloud service providers.
• Over half (54 percent) of organisations believe it is the responsibility of the cloud service provider to securely transfer data between on-premises and cloud.
• Over half (51 percent) believe it is the responsibility of the cloud service provider to back up workloads in the cloud.

More than one in two (55 per cent) of organisations also believe that application uptime is the responsibility of the cloud provider.

“Our legal teams reviewed contracts from multiple public cloud service providers to help Veritas understand what customers and cloud service providers are responsible for with respect to data management in the public cloud,” said Mike Palmer, executive vice president and chief product officer, Veritas.

“Despite customers’ belief that cloud providers hold the responsibility of data management, cloud service provider contracts usually place data management responsibility on customers. Our research backed up our assumptions that the primary responsibility for data management lies with the customer,” Palmer added. “Veritas fully embraces a multi-cloud approach and is partnering with many leading cloud service providers to help customers manage and extract maximum value from their applications and data.”  

Rise in Multi-Cloud Adoption
The Truth in Cloud research also shows that on average, organisations are using, or plan to use, multiple cloud platforms, ranging from public clouds to hosted private clouds. However, many organisations continue to face challenges getting to the cloud regardless of whether it is a public cloud or a hosted private cloud.

The common barriers are:

• Complexity with cloud migration (37 percent).
• Legacy technology limitations (36 percent).
• Lack of in-house skills (38 percent).
• Lack of a clear strategy (32 percent).
• Data silos (27 percent).

Currently, 75 percent of organisations work with an IaaS public cloud provider and surprisingly, 16 percent of respondents say that they use, or plan to use, five or more cloud providers. Respondents stated that data privacy, security and compliance, workload performance and uptime are the top deciding factors impacting cloud provider selection.

The full ‘The Truth in Cloud’ study is available HERE