If your business is not operating (at least in part) within the cloud you are likely feeling increasingly alone.
New cloud usage research from data virtualization provider Denodo finds that organizations are eager to adopt cloud based architectures in an effort to support their digital transformation efforts, drive efficiencies and strengthen customer satisfaction. No surprise there really, but how they are using the cloud is important to understand.
According to the study, the vast majority of those polled (76%) indicated they are using cloud solution with almost half stating they use Amazon AWS (47%), followed by Microsoft Azure (20%), and Google Cloud Platform (13%). Half of respondents said they are implementing a virtual private cloud, with cloud provider preferences closely aligned with those listedabove. The two most utilized cloud platforms according to Denodo's research are AWS and Azure.
What are these companies actually doing in the cloud?
Participants in Denodo's survey cited using cloud analytics most frequently for both AWS (49%) and Azure (59%). "Cloud storage" was the second-most frequent use case on AWS (45%), whereas "cloud data warehouse" was the second most frequent use case on Azure (41%). Rounding out the top three use cases was "cloud data warehouse" on AWS (40%), and "cloud storage" along with "hybrid integration" on Azure (29% for each use case). Interestingly, "cloud CRM" was an unpopular use case among both AWS and Azure platforms as only a mere 5 percent said they use the cloud for this purpose.
The manner in which enterprises are using the cloud also varies - and varies widely.
Almost half of all respondents (45%) are leveraging a hybrid cloud model, while 40 percent leverage private cloud/on-premise hybrid, 36 percent leverage public cloud/on-premise hybrid, followed by 23 percent who use a private cloud/public cloud hybrid. One-third of those surveyed acknowledged storing sensitive data in the public cloud, and about the same proportion use cloud security services to protect their data in the cloud. More than half (56%) of survey participants are planning a cloud initiative for 2018.
"While transitioning to cloud can be disruptive, data virtualization can help minimize the impact on business by isolating the changes," said Ravi Shankar, CMO, Denodo. "Without a proper hybrid integration layer, cloud apps and databases can become siloed. Data virtualization can open these silos and allow users to access all their data and take advantage of cloud modernization, analytics, and hybrid data fabric."