Survey highlights needs for visibility, data protection and compliance

The CipherCloud market research was based on surveying large enterprises across the globe and included companies in financial services, healthcare, telecommunications, retail, and other industries. 89 percent of enterprises reported that they needed protection across multiple clouds, the 2015 Key Requirements for Cloud Security Report highlights that cloud security is now a platform proposition. At the technology level, enterprises are identifying data protection (72 percent), visibility and monitoring (65 percent), data loss prevention (45 percent) and access logging and auditing (36 percent) as vital functions of an enterprise cloud security platform.

Based on detailed market research – the findings provide a deeper understanding of how large enterprises view their cloud usage and risk management needs. 65 percent of the responses come from North American organisations, 23 percent from European companies and 12 percent from Asia Pacific (APAC) and Latin American (LATAM) firms.

Key findings include:
• Salesforce and Microsoft Office 365 lead top adopted business SaaS applications at enterprises. Certain SaaS applications are well-entrenched in enterprise. 67 percent of the enterprises have either adopted or are in the process of adopting Salesforce.com, 62 percent have either adopted or are in the process of adopting Microsoft Office 365. Box, ServiceNow, Workday and SuccessFactors follow Salesforce and Microsoft.

• Enterprises want a multi-cloud security platform, not proprietary or cloud-specific cloud security solutions. 89 percent of companies required security controls to extend across multiple cloud services. Other top requirements for a cloud access security broker (CASB), coined by Gartner, include granular data protection and visibility into cloud operations. Enterprises want a platform that they can control, supports multiple clouds and offers data protection and visibility. Responses also indicate that cloud digital rights management (DRM) is an emerging requirement for CASB, primarily driven by healthcare and financial services firms.

• Data governance and data protection remain the top challenges for SaaS adoption at enterprises. 78 percent want better data governance and visibility with cloud applications. 63 percent want better tools to enforce data protection in a cloud environment. These are evidence that, despite the maturing of cloud technologies, enterprises in general still struggle with governance and protection for cloud deployments.

• Enterprises increasingly demand cloud data loss prevention (DLP) and user activity monitoring. 70 percent of enterprises engaged in the discussion of cloud discovery and monitoring want cloud DLP and 56 percent requested user activity monitoring as part of the discovery/monitoring solution. More specifically, enterprises want real-time, context-based DLP in conjunction with user activity monitoring for cloud access.

• Majority of enterprises want hybrid deployment for cloud discovery/monitoring functions. 63 percent of enterprises prefer a hybrid architecture. 82 percent request log analysis to be performed on premises.

“Enterprises are taking a broader view of cloud security,” said Pravin Kothari, founder and CEO, CipherCloud. “As they continue to adopt the cloud, enterprises are recognizing the importance of a platform approach to fully protect their data. Our new market research validates our strategy of delivering a multi-cloud security platform that meets the key cloud security requirements that enterprises are articulating.”