Cloud migration plans surge despite security concerns

Digital infrastructure company, Equinix, has found there has been a significant year-on-year leap in companies planning to move business-critical applications to the cloud, despite cybersecurity concerns.

The need to remain competitive and cater to increased user demands has prompted a 15% jump to 37% of companies saying they plan to move business-critical applications to the cloud in 2020-21, compared to the previous year. As digital leaders build robust digital infrastructures to ensure future success, it is estimated that almost half (47%) of their IT infrastructure globally is now on the cloud, despite ongoing concerns over cloud security. These findings come from Equinix's annual global study of the views of 2,600 IT decision-makers across the Americas, Asia-Pacific and EMEA—the Equinix 2020-21 Global Tech Trends Survey (GTTS).

Since the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the risk of cyberattacks has greatly expanded at the digital edge. Cybercrime costs the world economy more than $1 trillion with the average cost to organisations estimated to be more than half a million dollars per incident. Risk has been compounded by the large number of companies quickly shifting network capacity to cater to increasing volumes of remote worker data traffic. This has prompted a surge in cloud migration and broad implementation of cloud-based digital infrastructure as part of a hybrid infrastructure strategy.

Michael Montoya, Chief Information Security Officer, Equinix, said: "Digital transformation is essential for business survival. Every company is becoming a software company and the pandemic has accelerated the need for digital transformation. Indeed, findings from the 2021 Gartner® Board of Directors Survey* show 69% of boards accelerated their digital business initiatives in the wake of COVID-19.  

"Moving to the cloud is at the heart of this transformation. However, as our GTTS shows, many digital leaders remain nervous about this migration, with IT decision-makers highlighting fears around increased data leaks and security breaches.

"Cyber hygiene remains vitally important in the cloud. Equinix offers a robust and interconnected platform which allows for the direct and secure exchange of data between businesses. Equinix Fabric enables connectivity to global digital business ecosystems and a myriad of cloud service providers. As a Chief Information Security Officer, I now have the assurance that my cloud deployments avoid the public internet and the associated cyber risks."