Companies moving to the cloud despite security concerns

Despite more business moving to the cloud, 70% of these same respondents still perceive there to be cybersecurity risks around cloud adoption. Large public data breaches have caused uncertainty among companies, leading to 45% of respondents focusing on improving their organisation’s cybersecurity as their biggest IT priority.

Cloud and cybersecurity considerations together are top of mind for IT executives across the region. For nearly half (48%) of those surveyed, the adoption of cloud-based services represented one of the top two factors that will impact their business in the future — second only to cybersecurity risks and breaches (53%). The results also showed that companies across EMEA are twice as likely to connect with CSPs than any other product or service provider.

Comparatively in the UK, over two thirds of businesses (67%) believe that cybersecurity risks and breaches will be the top factor impacting their business in the future, a higher rate than for organisations across EMEA. More respondents (75%) also believe their organisation will move more to the cloud. Nearly one third (31%) of IT professionals surveyed think cloud service providers are the type of business their organisation is most likely to connect with in the future. This figure is significantly greater than the next businesses organisations are most likely to connect with – network providers (9%) and financial institutions (9%). Despite Brexit, 64% of senior IT decision-makers in the UK also believe that due to the UK’s flourishing data centre industry, the UK is the best place in Europe to interconnect with partners, customers, supply chain and cloud service providers.

The study also finds that only 17% of organisations across EMEA are currently using multi-cloud architecture. This compares to 56% who currently use private cloud and 42% who use public cloud. Organisations should be looking to multiple cloud service providers when building out their digital infrastructure strategy to remain competitive and secure. Equinix last year launched Equinix Cloud Exchange™ Fabric (ECX Fabric) to support businesses that need access to multiple CSPs. The service offers customers private connections to global cloud service providers no matter their location. Earlier this year the company also launched the Equinix SmartKey™ service, a global key management and encryption Software as a Service (SaaS) offering that simplifies data protection across any cloud or destination.

Highlights / Key Facts

·       The independent survey of 1,206 senior IT decision-makers across EMEA was commissioned by Equinix and conducted online between 20 August and 13 September 2018.

·       The survey was conducted to further explore areas highlighted in the second volume of Equinix’s annual market study, the Global Interconnection Index (GXI), which analyses traffic exchange globally, Interconnection, or direct and private traffic exchange between key business partners, is becoming the defacto method for companies to operate in today's digital world.

·       GXI analysed key macroeconomic, technology and regulatory trends that have driven Interconnection growth in the past year and will impact its future growth. The GXI found that cybersecurity risk was one of the key trends, as it expands Interconnection consumption as firms increasingly shift to private data traffic exchange to bypass the public internet and mitigate against digital threats as data is distributed across a growing number of vulnerability points. Large-scale cybersecurity breaches are one of the most serious risks facing the world today, and the scale of the threat is expanding drastically. By 2021, the global cost of cybersecurity breaches is projected to reach US$6 trillion[1].

·       The need to deploy hybrid cloud architecture by connecting to public cloud service providers is becoming increasingly important for global enterprises as digital transformation fuels the need for virtualised, on-demand and elastic access to public and private cloud-based services. ECX Fabric directly, securely and dynamically connects distributed infrastructure and digital ecosystems on Platform Equinix® via global, software-defined interconnection. Through a single port, customers can connect to anyone at Equinix, taking advantage of scalability, agility and connectivity.