69% of Organizations Using Cloud-Based File Sync and Share Extremely Interested in On-Premises Storage

Amid regulatory requirements, public cloud outages, legal concerns and the Snowden effect, 69% of organizations already using cloud-based file sync and share say they would be extremely interested in using on-premises storage, according to a survey by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG).

Hybrid and private cloud models offer enterprises the control, security and flexibility required to integrate existing infrastructure investments and still preserve sensitive data, according to ESG senior analyst Terri McClure.

“We are seeing significant pent up demand for online file sharing solutions that allow users to store some or all of their data on premises,” said McClure. “There are a number of drivers behind this demand. In addition to security concerns organizations express when it comes to storing data in the cloud, they also want to have control over where they store their data, and the ability leverage existing IT investments.“

Survey results were presented in an ownCloud, Inc.’s webinar (registration needed). With more than 1.3 million users worldwide, ownCloud, Inc. offers the ease-of-use, flexibility, sophistication, privacy and security unmatched by consumer-grade apps. ownCloud installs on a web server, enabling users to host their own file sync and share, using their own storage (or cloud storage they choose), instead of relying on third parties outside of their control.

• Adoption of corporate file sharing is on the rise, with 42% of companies currently using solutions
• 90% of current and potential OFS (online file sharing) users prohibit some type of data from being stored in the public cloud
• Accordingly, 69% of organizations already using cloud-based solutions state they would be extremely interested in file sync and share with on-premises storage

Additionally, many organizations, particularly large enterprises, have made investments building out on-premises storage and infrastructure, so it follows that 41% would point to the ability to leverage these existing resources as a reason to pursue alternate file sync and share deployment options. Even though storage can be relatively inexpensive in public cloud offerings, if organizations wanted to put all their data in an OFS solution, they would need to find a way to migrate their existing data, which is often time consuming and expensive, and may be limited by corporate policy on what may be stored in the cloud. This seems to be especially true among current OFS users, who have actual experience with these services and may be better positioned to complement public cloud offerings with on-premises resources.

According to Matt Richards, VP products, ownCloud, “Public cloud services have taken control away from corporate IT and this has caused some real issues, including:

• Inconsistent, or proprietary data shared with partners, prospects, customers, or outside parties
• Siloed data that lives outside IT-developed security and governance measures
• Inability to determine who had access to what files
• Broken business processes

The only way to fix these problems is to just leave the data where it is, use the systems you’ve already invested in to control who sees that data, when, where and how, and with whom they can share it. This protects the data, avoids data redundancy and sprawl and extend the enterprise, allowing IT to keep the data where it is – instead of shipping it off into the cloud.“

ownCloud Enterprise Edition – based on ownCloud Community Edition, an open source file sync and share project – is deployed on premises, enabling integration into existing user management tools, governance processes, and security, monitoring, and backup tools. ownCloud can also leverage nearly all on site storage, and can be deployed with cloud storage as well – such as Amazon (S3) and OpenStack Object Storage (Swift) – to create a centrally controlled hybrid deployment model.