Next Generation Cloud Study Reveals Vast Majority Of I.T. Leaders Concerned With Security And Privacy Of Data For Cloud Implementations

SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwired) - Hitachi Data Systems Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), today announced results of an Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) study, "Preparing for next-generation cloud: Lessons learned and insights shared," which found that 87% of the organizations surveyed indicated their senior management were concerned with security and privacy of corporate data for cloud implementations. Responses also indicated that outages and failures of public cloud implementations were twice as likely to occur when compared to private cloud. Almost half of the respondents indicated the biggest risk of a failed implementation to be loss of customer data.

Cloud computing continues to transform the entire IT industry. It's created new market opportunities, adjacent product or service opportunities and new lines of business for many organizations. It has also given IT organizations, providers and integrators more agile, streamlined and cost-effective ways to deliver services to users and customers. While cloud computing has delivered many benefits, cloud adoption also continues to challenge even the most nimble of companies.

Study Highlights

• 67% of respondents have suffered some type of incident or issue related to their cloud computing implementation.
• Of the respondents experiencing an incident, 9% indicated it as being "high damage", while 55% indicated the damage as being "limited" and 34% "medium."
• 46% of respondents consider "loss of customer data" as the biggest risk to their organization of a failed cloud implementation, followed by loss of revenue (40%) and breach of customer privacy (36%).
• 26% of survey respondents who experienced a cloud incident cite a "prolonged failure to integrate" with the public cloud as a problem. A majority (36%) cited a technical error on the part of their own organization as being a primary cause of the incident.

By gathering lessons learned from cloud implementations of 232 global IT executives, the 2015 Economist Intelligence Unit report identifies five best practices that can help organizations make the most of their cloud opportunities. These best practices can help drive greater business agility, improved data access and a more productive, mobilized workforce:

• Ensure cloud providers can meet corporate business and IT requirements.
• Choose the right cloud service for greater control over security and data protection.
• Use cloud architectures that enable connections from cloud services to existing IT infrastructure.
• Consider factors beyond costs, such as cloud's potential to improve business operations and boost innovation and employee efficiency.
• Define business requirements for IT to offer cloud services and act as cloud brokers.

The Silver Lining: Opportunities Abound for Companies to Secure and Protect Their Data in the Cloud
In alignment with these best practices, the Hitachi Content Platform (HCP), rated #1 most secure object storage solution according to Gartner in their Critical Capabilities report, delivers distinct advantages that can accelerate cloud adoption for organizations. This family of products lets you build your own secure, scalable and easy-to-manage cloud. It includes HCP, an object-based cloud storage platform; HCP Anywhere, an enterprise-class file sync and share solution; and Hitachi Data Ingestor (HDI), a cloud storage gateway. These three solutions are tightly integrated, offering maximum data mobility so that organizations can avoid being trapped by traditional technology silos. Taking data mobility a step further, HCP provides a hybrid cloud architecture that enables organizations to move data to and between their choice of public clouds for the datasets and workloads they deem appropriate to move offsite. The rich data management and hybrid capabilities of HCP provide IT with the tools to become internal brokers for their organizations' cloud services, while maintaining full control and visibility to ensure that proper data security, sovereignty and compliance are upheld. This means IT organizations can provide secure data access for their users anywhere, anytime, on any device.

The industry-leading HCP portfolio for content mobility, empowers workforces and maintains visibility and control with an agile hybrid cloud. It is cloud neutral with no lock-in and manages data globally for secure flexibility to stay ahead of cloud and mobility trends. Poised for outstanding efficiency gains and new business innovations, the HCP portfolio promotes faster time to value, and adaptability to market changes. Organizations can more easily meet compliancy demands with automated data retention policies and proactive responses to storage capacity management. Finding a balanced approach between flexible workplace mobility and corporate control and visibility of the data is now possible.

Supporting Quote:
"One of the reasons we chose Hitachi Content Platform was for its integrated architecture that is ready for cloud. It is extremely flexible and scalable, eliminates the need to run daily backup procedures, provides synchronization and file sharing, and ensures a high level of security. All key requirements for us." - Giuseppe Alibrandi, CTO di Banca Popolare di Milano.

About the Report
"Preparing for next-generation cloud: Lessons learned and insights shared" is an Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) research program, sponsored by Hitachi Data Systems. The report surveyed 232 global IT executives in 2015 to explore companies' experiences with cloud adoption.

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About HDS and Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi Data Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., provides information technologies, services and solutions that help companies improve IT costs and agility, and innovate with information to make a difference in the world. Our products, services and solutions are trusted by the world's leading enterprises, including more than 70% of the Fortune 100 and more than 80% of the Fortune Global 100. Visit us at www.HDS.com. 

Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, delivers innovations that answer society's challenges with our talented team and proven experience in global markets. The company's consolidated revenues for fiscal 2014 (ended March 31, 2015) totaled 9,761 billion yen ($81.3 billion). Hitachi is focusing more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes power & infrastructure systems, information & telecommunication systems, construction machinery, high functional materials & components, automotive systems, healthcare and others. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.

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