INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Cloud

Commissioned by Barracuda , the research surveyed 750 global and Australian IT decision makers , responsible for their organizations ’ networking , public cloud and security to get their perspectives on cloud adoption , working from home , security concerns and a variety of issues and challenges related to cybersecurity risks .

The report found organizations are currently experiencing a high level of network breaches and ever-increasing ransomware attacks are contributing to the security risks .

Despite broadband connections and company-issued devices , remote workers continue to experience IT pains , such as slow applications , dropped calls and poor video . User-experience issues and security challenges are related : Companies that work to resolve security issues tend to also improve their user experience .

Australian highlights from the report include :

• 86 % of respondents said their organization has been the victim of a security breach once in the last year .

• Companies with staff working predominantly from home had a significantly higher network security breach rate ( 93 %), compared to companies with staff working predominantly in the office ( 67 %).

• A full 72 % of those surveyed said their organization has been the victim of at least one ransomware attack in the last year .

• On average , only 12 % of employees at the businesses surveyed currently work in the office all the time .

• A full 96 % of respondents with companyissued devices share their home Internet connection with other members of their household , so the risk of breach remains .

• 33 % of companies with all apps in the public cloud have already deployed SD- WAN , less than companies with only a few apps in the public cloud ( 40 %).

• 67 % of companies with all apps in the public cloud have deployed Zero Trust Network Access ( ZTNA ), while just 40 % of companies with only a few apps in the public cloud have deployed it .

• On average , organizations have 30 Software- As-a-Service ( SaaS ) apps deployed .

• On average , respondents said 62 % of their traffic is directed to public cloud providers .

“ Organizations are experiencing a high level of network breaches and facing on-going connectivity and security challenges as they adapt to hybrid work environments ,” said Tim Jefferson , SVP , Engineering for Data , Networks and Application Security , Barracuda . “ But they are realizing that moving to SaaS applications and the public cloud improves both the user experience and security , so they ’ re starting to embrace new SASE technologies .”

Organizations are also realizing that moving SaaS applications to the public cloud improves the user experience and new technologies are available to support cloud presence and improve security . These Secure Access Service Edge ( SASE ) technologies include networking and security components .

Companies are to continue to aggressively invest in SD-WAN and Zero Trust Network Access . To take full advantage of SASE deployments , organizations are choosing cloud-native SASE solutions . There is growing evidence that these investments are going to help organizations better adapt to the new work environment . p

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