Why is Security the top ‘trigger’ for companies considering Cloud migration?

Oracle Openworld started the new year with a bang for IT firms across the UK – and presented us with the perfect opportunity to conduct research on Cloud migration habits. We ran a poll for the duration of the conference to find out which of six common ‘trigger events’ were the most compelling reason for the attendees’ to migrate to Public Cloud. The options were Modernisation, Security, Licensing, Data Centre Refresh, Hardware Refresh, and Simplification: the top concern, with more than 70% of the votes, was Security.

It was recently revealed that only 30% of NHS trusts have adopted any level of Public Cloud services, with other government departments showing only slightly higher statistics. Understandable, perhaps: 2018 saw the implementation of GDPR and several instances of public data being compromised by a handful of very public companies, making every UK internet user hyper-aware of the security risks attached to storing data online.

This begs the question: in a period where data protection is such a visible and vital topic, and Public Cloud appears to be so mistrusted, why was Security voted the most compelling reason for a Cloud migration? Firstly, it is worth remembering that the above risks apply to data stored on both physical servers and Cloud platforms, and indeed several of the breaches of the past few years have occurred through physical servers rather than Public Cloud.

More importantly, breaches are often the fault of companies failing to update and patch their database versions: for companies that take diligent care of their Cyber hygiene with regular health checks, the risk of a breach is dramatically lowered. Major Cloud providers have also made a point of acknowledging these concerns and responded by making security a primary feature of their sales campaigns. Within a few clicks on their respective websites Oracle, Azure, and AWS each display pages that explain the multitude of security features running in conjunction with their individual platforms.

Concerns over Cloud security are natural in the climate of the previous few years, where data hacking and intermittent breaches of privacy have put companies and individuals on alert. Yet according to Oracle’s Cloud Infrastructure Security white paper, the use of Cloud could provide you with greater control, transparency, and software flexibility than on-premises servers, whilst ensuring that the user retains as much control over their workloads as with physical servers. AWS further claim that these advanced security features will come at a lower cost than an on-premises environment, since Cloud users should only pay for the features they actively use.

Piqued your interest? Why not learn more with Oracle Bitesize, DSP-Explorer’s pocket-sized guide to Oracle database migration, or ask us about our partnerships with other major Cloud providers via https://www.dsp.co.uk/contact-us/.