The average person uses 28 distinct cloud apps at work, but corporate IT departments are moving more slowly when it comes to embracing new technologies due to security concerns.

1. O F T H E
S T A T E
C L O U D
2015

2. A recent study by the Cloud Security
Alliance investigated how companies are
using cloud apps

3. What they found may surprise you

4. Employees are racing to use cloud apps,
but their companies are more hesitant
when it comes to moving to the cloud

5. The average employee
actively uses 28 cloud
apps at work

6. But most companies are
MOVING
WITH CAUTION
11%
Not a priority
45%
Moving with caution
33%
Full steam ahead
15%
Early stages of investigation

7. That’s because IT professionals read
the same news as everyone else

8. So it’s not surprising that security is the
top barrier to cloud projects
Concern about the security of data 73%
Concern about regulatory compliance 38%
Loss of control over IT services 38%
Knowledge and experience of both
IT and business managers 34%
Concern over compromised
accounts or insider threats 30%
Concern over business continuity
or disaster recovery 28%

9. After Target lost $162 million
in a data breach, security is
not just an IT concern

10. 20%
Not Sure
19%
No
61%
Yes
Security of data in the cloud is an executive-level and
board-level concern at a majority of companies
(Is cloud security an executive or board-level concern at your company?)

11. The challenge is that most cloud usage is in
a company’s blind spot

12. With so many free and low-cost
apps available, employees are
bringing their own apps to work

13. And using them to store company data

14. In many cases, employees do not evaluate
the security controls of these apps, or even
read the terms and conditions
I agree to the terms & conditions.
Accept

15. Producing what’s called
Shadow IT

16. Shadow IT
noun | /ʃædoʊ ɑɪ tʰi/
Information technology employees
bring to work without the knowledge
or permission of the IT department.

17. say they don’t know how many cloud apps are in
use at their company...
72% of IT professionals

18. say they don’t know how many cloud apps are in
use at their company...
72% of IT professionals
72%
Don’t know,
but want to know
20%
Don’t know,
and don’t care
8%
Know
But they want to know

19. Regardless of how many apps there are,
employees want more

20. of IT professionals
receive requests from
business users for new
cloud apps each month
79%

21. These are the most frequently requested
cloud app categories

22. (Within IT professionals who
receive requests, percentage
of professionals who receive
requests for each category)
80%File sharing and collaboration
Box, Dropbox, Google Docs, Office 365, etc.
41%Communication
HipChat, Skype, Webex, Yammer, etc.
38%Social media
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.
27%Content sharing
Flickr, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
20%Enterprise content management
Saperion, OpenText, SpringCM, etc.
20%Development
Codehaus, Github, MSDN, SourceForge, etc.
20%Marketing
Hubspot, Mail Chimp, Marketo, etc.
18%Sales productivity
Clari, ClearSlide Infer, RelatelQ, etc.
16%Business intelligence
Birst, Tableau, QlikView, Teradata, etc.

23. Despite security concerns,
cloud apps make employees
18.8% more productive

24. They also reduce IT cost by
15.1%

25. With cloud apps
Without cloud apps
And crucially, these companies also grow
than those that don’t take advantage of
the cloud
19.6% faster

26. To balance these benefits with potential
risks, companies are investing in security

27. Cloud security tops the list of security priorities
(Percent of IT professionals who rate projects “very important”)
Firewall/proxy
Mobile device managemenet
Endpoint protection
Cloud security 42%
Intrusion prevention 41%
35%
29%
29%
Log management 23%

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http://bit.ly/CSASurvey2015
Download the full report
to get all the findings
Cloud Adoption Practices
& Priorities Survey Report
January 2015