Cloud applications are used in over half of enterprises globally and demand is growing rapidly. To better understand the priorities for IT leaders in 2017, we surveyed over 100 executives at the Gartner Symposium on planned deployments, security needs, and more.
For many large enterprises, cloud has become necessary given the fexibility and mobility demands of a modern workforce. Sales teams need to access Salesforce on the go, Marketing teams need easy collaboration, the list goes on.
It turns out, one in three organizations today are cloud-first. That is to say, over a third choose cloud apps whenever they’re available due to ease of deployment, cost, and functionality. A massive sixty-five percent of enteprises are cloud sometimes.
Notably, of the organizations that have deployed some cloud app, many have deployed more than one app. This is a trend that will undoubtedly continue into 2017 as more business critical apps become available in the cloud. The challenge here remains securing data in all apps.
On security, many industry leaders are curious as to which capabilities are most critical, which are most effective, and which their peers are using. Core CASB security functionality is growing in importance in these circles, as one in four survey respondents cited unmanaged device access as essential for the years ahead. External sharing controls were equally important to IT execs in our survey.
Looking ahead, many organizations will look to shift spend from premises-based security infrastructure to cloud-based security solutions. Twenty-two percent plan to decrease spending from companies like Palo Alto and Cisco in the coming year, many reallocating those resources to higher priority security risks, be they unmanaged devices, unintended file shares, or compromised credentials.
Image: influentialmind
