Bitglass Report: For the First Time, a Majority of Enterprises Believe Cloud Apps Can Be as Secure as On-Premises Apps

CAMPBELL, CA--(Marketwired - Jun 8, 2016) - Bitglass, the Total Data Protection company, today released the results of its report "The Rise of Purpose-Built Cloud Security." The report found that the perception of cloud security within enterprises is improving dramatically year-over year as cloud applications mature. One of the most significant findings is that 52 percent of organizations are confident that cloud apps are as secure as premises-based apps, up from 40 percent a year ago. The report reflects the insights of more than 2,200 cybersecurity professionals who were surveyed about enterprise cloud usage and security.

With the growing confidence in cloud application security, Microsoft Office 365 has continued to overtake Google Apps in 2016. According to the report, 61 percent of organizations have existing or planned Office 365 deployments, up from 45 percent last year. Google Apps deployments are down from 29 percent in 2015 to 26 percent in 2016. This shift is in part driven by the need for continuity, trusted enterprise-class support, and familiarity with Microsoft's platform in organizations that have existing on-premises Exchange deployments.

"IT leaders know that traditional security tools are obsolete outside of the corporate network," said Nat Kausik, CEO, Bitglass. "While SaaS vendors invest heavily in securing their infrastructure, it is the responsibility of the enterprise to secure its own data."

Key Findings:

• For the first time, more than half of enterprises surveyed (52 percent) believe that cloud applications can be as secure or more secure than premises-based applications. This figure increased significantly from last year, when only 40 percent of enterprises felt cloud-based application security could be better than on-premises applications.
• Google continues to lose market share to Microsoft within the enterprise. Now 61 percent of organizations have existing or planned Office 365 deployments, up from 45 percent last year. Google Apps deployments are down from 29 percent in 2015 to 26 percent this year.
• More than half of organizations cite unauthorized access as a top threat to cloud security while one in three organizations cite external sharing of sensitive information as a top threat.
• Almost 60 percent of organizations believe legacy security infrastructure from companies like Symantec and Palo Alto Networks is made obsolete when adopting cloud applications.
• 56 percent of enterprises plan to set and enforce security policies across multiple cloud apps with technologies such as Cloud Access Security Brokers.
• Knowledge of shadow IT is not driving changes in policy -- only 42 percent of organizations have policies against the use of unsanctioned file-sharing apps, up slightly from 36 percent last year.

Top Threats and Drivers of Cloud Adoption
IT leaders feel that cloud is living up to the hype, citing availability, cost reduction and flexible scalability as realized benefits of cloud apps. On the other hand, security threats loom large. The top threats that concern security leaders as they adopt cloud apps are unauthorized access (53 percent), risk of data leakage (49 percent), data privacy (46 percent). Account hijacking (44 percent), insecure APIs (39 percent) and external sharing (34 percent) were also cited among top concerns.

To view the complete Bitglass cloud report, visit: bitglass.com/cloud-spotlight-2016

About Bitglass
Bitglass' Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) solution provides enterprises with end-to-end data protection from the cloud to the device. It deploys in minutes and works with any cloud app on any device. Bitglass protects mobile devices without the hassles of MDM and enables enterprises to enforce corporate data security policies across apps like Office 365, Salesforce, and Exchange. Bitglass, based in Silicon Valley, was founded in 2013 by a team of industry veterans with a proven track record of innovation and execution.