Cloud Service Providers: Can MSPs Mitigate Backup Concerns? -

Despite a stark increase in cloud adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic, user confidence in public cloud service providers (CSPs) to protect and recover their stored data has ebbed, a new StorageCraft study found.

StorageCraft’s global study also illuminated a "widespread misconception" that responsibility for backup and recovery of data stored in the cloud resides solely with cloud service providers, the data security provider said.

More than four in 10 of the 709 survey participants with budget or technical decision-making responsibility for data management, data protection, and storage solutions hold that assumption, a result StorageCraft called “concerning.” Companies transitioning to cloud services “must understand” that data held in public cloud services and applications is a shared responsibility between the data owner and the cloud provider, StorageCraft said.

Cloud Backup Services: MSPs Assist Customers

Of particular note, 38 percent of the study’s respondents plan to increase spending with managed service providers (MSPs) on backing up on-premises data in the cloud, 37 percent on cloud backup of remote offices, and 18 percent on cloud disaster recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS).

Here are some of the study’s additional key findings (by % of respondents):

On cloud adoption during COVID-19:

47% are seeing accelerated adoption of cloud services for data management.

59% confirmed increased use of cloud backup services.

39% increasingly rely on cloud services for data recovery.

56% had increased the use of the cloud for IT infrastructure.

On public cloud data security:

45% believe data backed up to a public cloud (AWS, Azure, Office365, etc.) is not as safe as data backed up on-premises.

69% believe data backed up to a public cloud is not as safe as data backed up on-premises in organizations with more than 1 petabyte of data.

44% believe the protection and recovery of data stored in public clouds is the cloud provider's responsibility not the data owner.

On barriers to cloud data services adoption:

40% said regulations and compliance, 43% said lack of control over data, and 48% said security concerns hindered their adoption.

"Organizations are increasingly looking to cloud services as part of a hybrid data center strategy to help manage the cost and complexity of their data environments which have typically become even harder to manage with the move to remote working," said Shridar Subramanian, Arcserve chief marketing officer. (Arcserve finalized its merger with StorageCraft in March, 2021). "It is encouraging that many plan to increase data security and back up investments with their MSPs. The expertise MSPs bring to the table will ensure these organizations will have well-defined and tested data protection and recovery plans in place."

The data are the first in a series released on the research results. The survey was conducted in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, United Kingdom, and the United States at mid-sized companies of 100 - 2,500 employees.

Admittedly, it's important to keep the StorageCraft research in context. The company, originally an on-premises backup software provider, has aggressively shifted toward cloud-oriented data protection services as part of the larger CSP storage trend.