Despite evolving privacy regulations, high-profile data breach incidents and public sentiment toward data privacy, 54% of organizations say they are sharing data more frequently than they did last year. But, as we’ve discussed before, data, in its many forms, is simply hard to manage.
However, the benefits of data sharing significantly outweigh the risks, so long as your organization has the proper privacy and security protections in place. Use our data sharing calculator to determine how much sensitive data you’re sharing and how to best protect it.
The Value of Data Sharing
Sharing data—internally, with business partners and vendors, and even with customers—puts organizations at a significant advantage. The more data that is shared via the cloud, the bigger the opportunity your organization has to collaborate, innovate, scale and grow the business. In fact, in an example that we explored in a previous post, sharing of health data between providers and patients makes medical breakthroughs possible.
Full-scale cloud adoption presents significant challenges for many organizations, especially those bound by the constraints of legacy infrastructure, those in highly-regulated industries, or those that are simply risk-averse. But it’s not impossible.
Data Sharing Statistics
When it comes to sharing data in the face of rising data privacy regulations, a vast majority of organizations indicate that they need to make a financial investment in order to keep data safe, especially in a multi-cloud environment. Here’s a look at what’s impacting organizations that are sharing data on the regular:
- 71% had to make a financial investment in order to keep data safe.
- 69% struggle with regulating data across a multi-cloud environment.
- 65% aren’t sufficiently training employees on how to share data safely.
- 63% feel that file-sharing capabilities aren’t secure enough.
- 59% say data protection capabilities are too difficult for end-users, hindering the ability to share.
- 55% say policies around data sharing aren’t compliant with new regulations.
- 47% say security measures aren’t compliant.
Considering that nearly two-thirds of organizations 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, the fact that organizations are now sharing data more frequently leaves the organization open to risk.
Data Sharing is a Necessary Risk
In order to reap the benefits of data sharing, organizations must adopt cloud technology. Moving your data to the cloud—while keeping it private and secure—can have significant benefits for your organization. That’s why it’s predicted that 83% of enterprise workloads will be in the cloud by 2020.
Moving your data to the cloud also means you won’t get left behind. On-premises workloads are expected to shrink from 37% today to 27% of all workloads by 2020. And Gartner says to prepare for on-premises email services to “diminish rapidly,” stating that by 2021, 70% of public and private companies are expected to be using one or more cloud email services. So where does this leave organizations that can’t shake their legacy-first approach?
Maintaining all infrastructure on-premises can represent a single-point-of-failure, which puts your data at greater risk of being breached, leaked, lost or corrupted. But, equally as significant, it also means you miss out on opportunities created by secure data sharing—like collaboration, innovation, and the ability to scale and grow your business.
Secure Data Sharing in the Cloud
The first step is to work with the right cloud provider—one that has the infrastructure, expertise, and features that meet an organization’s specific data security and privacy needs. Remember, the right cloud provider should not only protect your data but should also give you complete visibility and control over it, always.
At Virtru, we believe you shouldn’t have to choose between protecting your data and sharing it. Virtru provides the protection that organizations need to encrypt sensitive data and share it securely. For more information and to see how Virtru can help you in your digital transformation, get in touch with one of our cloud security experts today.
