UAE leads world in public cloud adoption

UAE ranks second in public cloud adoption at 34%, China at 37%

More than half (53%) of UAE respondents no longer understand their entire data footprint, making them vulnerable to cyberattacks

56% agree that relying solely on their cloud provider’s security tools puts their organization at risk, and 35% report suffering financial losses from paying ransom to cyber attackers

Veritas urges organizations to adopt a unified approach to data management for their multi-cloud, hybrid environments

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Veritas Technologies, a global leader in data protection, today announced the results of its international cloud survey. Published at Gitex Global 2022, the study shows that UAE organisations have made tremendous progress in transitioning to the cloud, ranking second globally among public cloud service adopters. However, there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure that the data they move to the cloud is protected, compliant and available.

Veritas surveyed more than 1,500 IT decision makers in 12 countries, including 100 respondents from the UAE, and found that more than half (53%) of UAE organisations do not have full visibility into their data.

Adopting a multi-cloud provider strategy has exacerbated the opaque understanding of where data is stored, with the average enterprise in the UAE currently using three different public cloud providers for their storage needs. This, in turn, undermines data protection strategies, with 53% of UAE companies surveyed saying they have been using data protection solutions built into these cloud services. That’s despite more than half (56%) saying these tools put their organizations at risk.

Johnny Karam, Managing Director and Vice President, International Emerging Regions, Veritas Technologies, said: “The UAE is a global hub for digital transformation, so we are not surprised that the country is leading the way in global public cloud adoption. . However, with every A new solution is introduced into an organization’s technology stack, which adds more complexity, is more prone to error, and leaves systems and data more vulnerable to unprotected and vulnerable attacks.

“For enterprises to continue their upward growth trajectory, they need to prioritize protecting their data in these new and complex multi-cloud environments. We look forward to connecting with customers at this year’s Gitex Global 2022, demonstrating what it takes to navigate a multi-cloud environment resiliency, digitally transform their data protection management, and protect themselves from cyber threats,” added Johnny Karam.

Other key findings of the study:
Greater complexity requires greater visibility
Half of UAE respondents (51%) cited cost savings as the biggest benefit of using a cloud service provider. 45% are due to increased flexibility and 44% are due to data security benefits – such as cloud-native data security.

To reap these benefits, however, organizations are dealing with greater complexity than ever before, making them more vulnerable to cyber threats if they do not have proper security measures in place. For organizations that want to protect themselves from any type of data breach or threat, such as ransomware, the first step is to gain a comprehensive view of their data in these multi-cloud environments.

According to the study, the majority (53%) had “some visibility” or “limited visibility” to their data. Of these organizations, only 55% have fully functional tools that provide this visibility.

Johnny Karam said: “In order to properly protect their data, businesses need a thorough understanding of the value and location of their data. Therefore, before properly securing cloud datasets from threats such as ransomware, IT teams need to know exactly which data resides in which cloud services It is worrying that more than half have no idea how many cloud services their company is using, let alone what they are.”

Who is responsible for protecting data in the cloud?

When it comes to how to protect their data in the cloud, there is a misunderstanding of where exactly the responsibilities lie between organizations and cloud providers. Only 2% of respondents correctly pointed out that most cloud providers only offer guarantees of the resiliency of their services, they do not guarantee that customers will protect their data or applications when using their services.

This may help explain why so many UAE organisations turn to these cloud providers when they find they do need extra protection. However, UAE businesses are increasingly aware of the risks associated with using cloud-native security tools. The vast majority (77%) of organizations believe that current offerings from public cloud service providers do not meet their organization’s security needs.

According to the study, companies that rely more on native security tools are hit harder by ransomware than organizations that rely less on native security tools. More than half of UAE respondents (52%) who use only their cloud provider security tools say 40% of organisations have lost data due to ransomware attacks as a result of relying on such cloud-secured backups. More frequent use of these perceived built-in security tools is also associated with more operational downtime, reputational damage, permanent data loss, and financial loss from data recovery.

Johnny Karam added: “As respondents in the UAE become more aware of the risks of using only cloud provider security tools for protection, the next step is to reassess their strategies. IT decision makers in organizations need to learn how to build A unified data protection strategy of And complete endpoint visibility and implementation of immutable storage, automated recovery processes and regular recovery testing are critical to business growth.”

Veritas presented their latest technology at GITEX 2022. Customers can find Veritas at booth CC2-1. Hall II, DWTC.

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Research and statistics compiled by Vanson Bourne for Veritas Technologies LLC. A total of 1,500 professionals from Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, UAE, UK and US were interviewed.

About Veritas
Veritas Technologies is a global leader in data protection, availability and insight. Over 80,000 customers, including 87% of the Fortune Global 500, rely on us to abstract IT complexity and simplify data management. The Veritas Enterprise Data Services Platform automatically protects and orchestrates the recovery of data at its location, ensuring 24/7 availability of business-critical applications and providing businesses with the insights they need to comply with changing data regulations. Veritas Enterprise Data Services Platform is known for its reliability at scale and a deployment model to fit any need, supporting more than 800 different data sources, more than 100 different operating systems, more than 1,400 storage targets, and more than 60 different cloud platform. Visit www.veritas.com for more information. Follow us on Twitter @veritastechllc.