Cloud Access Security Market Expected to Reach 25% of Companies by 2016
Posted by skyhighnetworks on May 12th, 2014
When Brian Lillie, Chief Information Officer of datacenter company Equinix, asked employees what technology they used, it wasn’t limited to the software provided by IT. “People were using Dropbox, Evernote, a whole range of cloud services with varying levels of risk. We knew we had to get a handle on everything.”
The company eventually purchased a solution that allows them visibility into all the cloud services people are using in order to shepherd them to lower-risk services. Information technology analyst firm Gartner defines the market as Cloud Access Security Brokers, including solutions that discover all services in use, assess their risk, and provide security tools.
According to Gartner, by 2016 it’s expected that one out of every four enterprises will use a CASB solution, up from just 1% in 2012. They project the use of cloud access security brokers will reduce the cost of securing cloud access by as much as 30% for the average company. That’s a substantial amount of money since many large enterprises spend millions of dollars each year on securing their data.
As more employees bring an increasing number of cloud services to work, and install them on devices brought to work, known as bring your own device or BYOD, many in IT are signaling this next wave as the bring your own cloud or BYOC era. Cloud Access Security aims to protect data across a vast array of thousands of different cloud services, all with differing security controls and policies.
For Brian Lillie, it’s clear IT must work with the business to enable the safe adoption of cloud. “IT lives to serve the business, not the other way around. We’re the chief enabler of the business.” Within Equinix, some people have started calling Lillie the Chief Enablement Officer. It’s a riff on the job title Chief Information Officer, signaling IT is more about information today, it’s about enabling business value.
Author:
Skyhigh Networks, the Cloud Access Security company, enables companies to embrace Cloud Services with appropriate levels of security, compliance, and governance while lowering overall risk and cost. With customers in financial services, healthcare, high technology, media, manufacturing, and legal verticals, the company was a finalist for the RSA Conference 2013 Most Innovative Company award and was recently named a "Cool Vendor" by Gartner, Inc. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Skyhigh Networks is led by an experienced team and is venture-backed by Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital. For more information, visit us at http://www.skyhighnetworks.com/cloud-university/what-is-cloud-access-security-broker/ or follow us on Twitter @skyhighnetworks.
