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Businesses choosing to spread their operations across multiple cloud platforms are currently running into issues when it comes to efficiently extracting data and insights across their operations. With 70% of businesses using different analytics platforms per cloud, operators are finding it more and more time-consuming when it comes to receiving insights due to the mass of data being stored in different clouds rather than being readily available.
These findings come from the latest SAS report, A Silver Lining from Every Cloud, which looked at challenges businesses face when relying on multiple public and private cloud platforms to host data and applications. The report surveyed over 200 key decision-makers in the UK & Ireland in data, analytics and cloud services, each from companies with 3000+ employees.

Operational and security costs of multi-cloud use
The report found that 42% of businesses relied on at least two public cloud providers for business applications, analytics and hosting business-critical data. 8/10 businesses admitted needing to pull regular snapshots of data into a common pool – wasting both time in consolidating data and in the costs of running multiple cloud platforms.
Additionally, cloud proliferation was highlighted as the leading cause for the majority of organisations facing a number of significant operational challenges when it comes to extracting insights from data.

Mark Appleton, Chief Customer Office at ALSO Cloud UK, commented: “Businesses often invest extensively and indiscriminately in their cloud infrastructure without considering the potential operational and security implications of hosting multiple clouds. Consequently, these environments are often inadequate when it comes to addressing the specific challenges businesses face in their cloud operations.

“Storing data across multiple cloud platforms may seem appealing at first glance, but ultimately this consumes more time when analytics operators need to utilise and gather insights from multiple data sources. They have inadvertently made it more difficult to use the data they have curated, often leading it to go wasted in storage rather than actively recycled back into informing operations.”

Appleton additionally highlighted the increased cybersecurity risk of investing in multiple cloud platforms. “Instead of facilitating business operations, the infrastructure merely increases the security risks as multiple providers become vulnerable to cyber threats. With a wider attack surface, malicious cyber actors are more likely to be able to infiltrate networks, meaning businesses are inadvertently putting their data at greater risk.”

“The solution for IT operators lies in consolidating various environments into a single cloud platform. By doing so, businesses can achieve a more streamlined and efficient operation that better caters to their cloud needs, whilst tightening their cloud network security against outside threats.”