Nearly 20% of government agencies using a public cloud do not encrypt data, but still see security as a top priority.
That’s the word from a survey of government IT decision-makers by HyTrust analyzing the government and military’s use of public cloud vendors, the utilization of public cloud implementations and how government and military organizations are protecting data in these cloud environments.
Government agencies today are facing budget constraints and increasingly strict regulations. Many governments have implemented policies that require agencies to consider cloud-based technology options, which has been a major driver in governments exploring cloud options, but according to the results, respondents still prioritize security as the top concern, followed by cost.
“We see major potential for government agencies adopting cloud technology and some agencies are already seeing the benefits,” said Bill Aubin, vice president of federal at HyTrust. “By carefully assessing the technology, policy and security requirements, agencies will be well on their way to a seamless and safe transition.”
The survey also found that of the agencies using public cloud, 41% are using third-party encryption instead of cloud provider solutions; and nearly 29% of agencies are still not using the public cloud.
“We continue to see governments looking to deploy solutions that enable them to scale their workloads securely with no downtime,” said Ted Hengst, of the HyTrust Federal Advisory Board. “Now there are highly-secure solutions that provide governments with peace of mind so they can benefit from hybrid or multi-cloud deployments.”
The results also highlight government and military preferences for public cloud providers, with VMware’s vCloud Air and Amazon Web Services (AWS) topping the list.
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