Based on responses from 1,037 IT professionals in the US and UK, the data also revealed insights into who is responsible for SaaS data protection, organizational confidence in SaaS data protection and the top concerns about moving data to the cloud. Key findings include: · E-mail/Messaging Lead In SaaS Adoption – More than 50 percent of US and UK IT pros said that e-mail/messaging is deployed or will be deployed via SaaS in the next 12 months. Financial, HR and CRM applications followed closely behind.
· Gap Exists Between Perception and Reality of SaaS Data Protection Responsibility – Organizations mostly rely on their SaaS vendors for backup and recovery of SaaS applications (49 percent in US, 42 percent in UK), despite the prominence of data loss due to user error (70 percent in US, 66 percent in UK), for which SaaS providers are not typically responsible. As one way to protect SaaS data, roughly a third of organizations in the US and UK are either using today or plan to use a cloud-to-cloud backup provider for backup and recovery of their SaaS applications within the next 12 months (37 percent in US, 31 percent in UK).
· US Leads UK in SaaS Data Protection Confidence – 80 percent of US IT pros are confident in their organization’s ability to secure SaaS application data, compared to 45 percent in the UK.
· Security Is the Top Concern When Moving Critical Business Applications to the Cloud – While organizations in both the US and UK have experienced data loss due to accidental deletions, migration errors (33 percent/31 percent), and accidental overwrites (27 percent/26 percent), they are still most concerned about external attacks (44 percent).
· US and UK Differ Most on Security When it Comes to SaaS Adoption – When asked to rank differences between US and UK when it comes to SaaS adoption, security-led compliance, availability of data, costs and data privacy were highlighted as having the most differences.
“This survey not only validates the accelerating adoption of SaaS, but also that US and UK IT professionals understand the importance of having a backup and recovery strategy for SaaS application data with only 7 percent and 8 percent, respectively, not planning or using any form of backup and recovery for their SaaS applications,” said Jeff Erramouspe, vice president and general manager, Spanning. “When it comes to SaaS data protection, however, the survey shows misplaced confidence. SaaS providers are not responsible for recovery of data lost due to user error, yet that continues to be the leading cause. It demonstrates the need for cloud-to-cloud backup and restore solutions.”
EU Data Privacy Rules Create Costly Compliance Burden
The survey found that 50 percent of US and 40 percent of UK IT professionals agree that the rapidly changing EU data privacy regulations are creating a costly compliance burden. In light of the “E.U.-U.S. Privacy Shield” being put in place, the survey also showed opposing views of the new rules among IT professionals on both sides of the Atlantic, with those in the UK taking a more cautious approach to data sovereignty.
Despite the caution, the survey also indicated that a vast majority of IT professionals agree (66 percent in the UK, 72 percent in the US) that storing data in a primary cloud provider’s EU data center will ensure 100 percent compliance with data and privacy regulations.
“Being a UK-headquartered company, it is critical that we ensure that the aspects of our data are managed within the European Economic Area and governed securely,” said Garry Lengthorn, Director of IT Services, SThree PLC. “This was a critical driver for our company choosing Spanning Backup. Now, our Salesforce data remains in the UK data center, where it can be safely protected, backed up and restored.”
