11-13-13 | Blog Post
Results from the 2013 IDG Enterprise Cloud Computing report found that the percent of total IT environment to be moved to the private cloud grew from 28 to 36 percent, with a lower TCO (total cost of ownership) being the top internal selling point for those surveyed (23 percent). The report included surveyed readers of CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, ITworld, and Network World.
Other top arguments for using the private cloud include the ability to enable business continuity (20 percent); replacing on-premise legacy technology (20 percent); and speed of deployment (19 percent). While these are true, other benefits of a private cloud include access to and control of your environment via a virtual machine operations manager, dedicated compute and storage, and, if your cloud provider supports this, built-in, hardware-based encryption.
Encryption of data at rest and in transit are considered best practices for the healthcare, financial, ecommerce and other industries concerned with data security. An encrypted HIPAA cloud, for example, should be audited to data regulation standards that require compliance not only at the technical level, but also the administrative and physical security levels. No two clouds are alike – read What to Look for in a HIPAA Cloud Provider for key indicators of a quality healthcare cloud hosting partner.
Another trend in the cloud industry appears to be greater enterprise investment in the technology – cloud investments from enterprise organizations are up 10 percent over 2012, which includes resources spent on software, service training and other related costs. What’s included in an enterprise cloud infrastructure? Dedicated servers, SAN and disk drives; ideal for companies with mission-critical applications and the need for a completely isolated infrastructure.
What is the enterprise cloud recommended for? Companies with healthcare applications (EHR, electronic health record systems); highly secure dedicated hardware systems; businesses that need custom backup windows; disk-based database software; highly transactional database servers (ecommerce websites); businesses with requirements for physical data separation and dedicated compute resources and more.
Read more about the cloud in our Encryption of Cloud Data white paper, or see the related videos and articles below:
The Big Switch to Managed Services and Private Cloud
Yan Ness, Co-CEO of Online Tech, explains how data center customers are more focused on using fully managed services and compliant hosting environments rather than managing it themselves. …(continue reading)
Private Cloud Security: How Your Data Security Changes in The Cloud
Jason Yaeger, Director of Operations at Online Tech, explains how data security changes for those hosted in the private or public cloud. …(continue reading)
Reference:
IDG Enterprise Cloud Research (2013)
