As many organizations know, sharing data is a key component of success in today’s omnichannel, globally-connected digital workplace. Data is being used across multiple platforms and environments in order to inform decision making at a faster speed than ever before. In fact, to meet the demands of a fast-paced digital workplace, more than 90% of organizations store data in the cloud.
Yet this is pressuring organizations to share securely and responsibly, without sacrificing speed and efficiency. These priorities often clash, leaving organizations trapped in the middle of a data-sharing storm.
As breaches make the headlines more frequently and privacy regulations tighten, the message to IT is clear: maintain privacy and security or pay the price.
So how should an organization approach this new environment? What are organizations currently doing to ensure regulatory compliance, and is it working? If not, why is it not working, and what in particular is causing the struggle?
In order to answer these questions, we must first gain a better understanding of the specific hurdles that organizations encounter when it comes to protecting data stored and shared in the cloud.
In the summer of 2019, 700 IT and business decision-makers were interviewed by independent market research firm Vanson Bourne. Below are several key findings based on that research, broken into three core topics, that define the digital workplace in 2019…
Data Sharing and Privacy in the Cloud
- 54% of organizations are sharing data more frequently than they did last year. The most common methods? 51% of organizations use email and 60% use cloud file storage systems.
- For most organizations (82%), sharing data externally is a daily occurrence, with over 40% doing so on a continuous basis. This goes to show just how integral sharing data is to business operations.
- 68% of organizations indicated they are most likely to share data with industry partners, while over half said they also share data with industry bodies/third-party regulators (58%), suppliers (57%), and customers (55%).
- Nearly 65% report that staff doesn’t have sufficient training on how to share data safely, and over six in ten report that file-sharing capabilities aren’t secure enough. That means organizations are now sharing data more frequently, but their employees aren’t equipped to share securely, leaving the organization open to risk.
Keeping up with Regulatory Compliance
- If you’re spending more time thinking about regulatory compliance these days, you aren’t alone. 72% of organizations say that compliance, governance, and data regulations are a higher priority now than they were 12 months ago.
- 69% of organizations struggle with regulating data across a multi-cloud environment. In fact, 55% say their policies around data sharing aren’t compliant with new regulations.
- Further, nearly half (49%) of organizations identify compliance regulations as among the top three drivers when structuring their organization’s data management strategy. But of course, this means that for just over half of organizations, compliance is not front and center when developing their data management strategies.
- Of those who actively manage compliance, governance, and/or data regulations, 90% report that their organization experiences obstacles. These obstacles include a lack of knowledgeable personnel (40%), technology challenges such as outdated architecture (38%), a lack of financial resources (32%), and/or too many competing priorities (30%).
- Only a third (33%) of organizations see penalties by regulatory bodies among the top three concerns for their organization in the event of a data breach. More likely to be the primary cause of worry for organizations is loss of customer trust (47%), financial loss (46%), impact to customers (44%), and/or reputational damage (42%).
Data Privacy in the Age of the Breach
- One-third of organizations believe that they are “completely prepared” to react to a data breach, yet that leaves a majority (64%) who are not so ready, perhaps lacking the response protocols, appropriate security tools, or expertise to react sufficiently. The question remains as to whether any organization can be truly ready for a data breach.
- With cloud usage so widespread (91%), attention now turns toward securing data stored in the cloud and ensuring that required data privacy levels are achieved.
- On average, respondents report that their organization is encountering two separate challenges/issues when it comes to data privacy and security in the cloud. The most prominent? Managing data across a multi-cloud environment (41%) and data being stored without the correct level of encryption (38%).
- 96% of organizations are taking the necessary steps to secure data during a cloud migration but only 61% are encrypting the data during transit. Moving data is a delicate task and organizations must take advantage of all the available actions to mitigate risk.
The findings are clear: sharing data is easy. Securing it, on the other hand, is challenging. Organizations need a solution that protects and controls data shared via email and stored across multi-cloud environments and supports easy regulatory compliance. Once these hurdles have been overcome, data management, compliance, and security will become a lot easier to handle.