Cloud savings, simplicity and data insights still elude most firms

A major expectation gap exists between what IT managers hoped the public cloud would deliver for their organizations and what has actually transpired, according to a new report from data management vendor Cohesity.

The company hired research firm Vanson Bourne to conduct a global survey of 900 senior IT decision makers, which showed that more than 90 percent thought when they started their journey to the cloud that it would simplify operations, increase agility, reduce costs, and provide greater insight into their data.

However, of those that felt the promise of public cloud had not been realized, 91 percent think it is because their data is greatly fragmented in and across public clouds, and could become nearly impossible to manage long term.

Several factors are contributing to mass data fragmentation in the public cloud, according to the report. First, many organizations have deployed multiple point products to manage fragmented data silos, but that can add management complexities.

The survey found that nearly half of the organizations (44 percent) are using three to four products to manage their data, specifically backups, archives, files, test/dev copies, across public clouds today.

Respondents expressed concerns about using multiple products to move data between on-premises and public cloud environments if those products are not integrated.

In addition, data copies can increase fragmentation challenges, the report said. One third of respondents (33 percent) have four or more copies of the same data in public cloud environments, which can increase storage costs and create data compliance challenges.

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Cloud computing Data strategy Data management
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