UK enterprises overspending on public cloud

Research commissioned by Veritas Technologies, a leader in multi-cloud data management, has revealed that the vast majority of enterprises are failing to stay within their cloud budgets. In fact, 83% of respondents reported that their organization has incurred higher costs than originally anticipated when using a public cloud service provider (CSP), and are overspending by an average of 33%.

The Veritas Securing Your Enterprise in a Multi-Cloud Environment Research (link) which surveyed 1,500 technology and IT decision-makers across 12 countries, showed that enterprises clearly see value in the public cloud, as 100% of respondents agreed that using CSPs and their tools provided benefits to the organization, such as flexibility, scalability and mobility.

However, many organizations are planning their cloud budgets without fully understanding what they are ultimately going to need to pay for. For example, nearly all (98%)  respondents believed that the CSP would be responsible for protecting some of their assets in the cloud. This is rarely the case as most CSPs make it very clear that, while they are on the line to ensure the resiliency *of* the cloud, their customers shoulder the responsibility for the data and applications *in* the cloud.

This is an important distinction since the research highlighted that data in the cloud is a highly attractive target for cybercriminals. 80% of respondents told Veritas that their organizations had experienced a ransomware attack on their cloud environments. 

The misunderstanding around the cloud responsibility model means that many companies have not factored in the requirement for third-party data protection and are leaving their critical data vulnerable to these ransomware attacks – and other data-loss incidents. Nearly a quarter (24%) of organizations, the research shows, have lost data as a result of relying solely on the backup tools built into solutions by their CSPs. And, 68% of respondents agreed that current offerings from CSPs fall short of their organization’s security needs.

As a result, it is, perhaps, unsurprising that the research showed that unforeseen data protection needs were the most common source of unexpected cloud costs, with 42% citing backup and recovery as the leading area of overspend.

Ian Wood, UK Head of Technology at Veritas said: “Our research reveals the true benefits that organisations are getting from the cloud – but it also highlights the need for a better understanding of what purchasers are actually responsible for and the paramount importance of including comprehensive cloud data protection and management in their budgets. Without it organisations are taking a huge risk and are likely to experience vast overspend when subjected to the extensive damage to brand and operations caused by a cyber attack. We’re urging our customers to take control of all data whether on premises or in the cloud from the very beginning by factoring it in to their budgets as a priority.”