A new online cloud usage survey conducted by Denodo, the leader in data virtualization, finds that organizations are eager to adopt cloud based architectures in an effort to support their digital transformation efforts, drive efficiencies and strengthen customer satisfaction. According to the study, the vast majority of those polled (76%) acknowledge using cloud with almost half stating they use Amazon AWS (47%), followed by Microsoft Azure (20%), and Google Cloud Platform (13%). Half of respondents are implementing a virtual private cloud, with cloud provider preferences closely aligned with those stated above.

Surveying 109 executives and IT professionals from a diverse group of technical backgrounds, the frequency with which organizations implement use cases varies widely but is generally consistent between the two most utilized cloud platforms; AWS and Azure. Participants cited using cloud analytics most frequently for both AWS (49%) and Azure (59%). "Cloud storage" was the second-most frequent use case on AWS (45%), whereas "cloud data warehouse" was the second most frequent use case on Azure (41%). Rounding out the top three use cases was "cloud data warehouse" on AWS (40%), and "cloud storage" along with "hybrid integration" on Azure (29% for each use case). Interestingly, "cloud CRM" was an unpopular use case among both AWS and Azure platforms as only a mere 5 percent said they use the cloud for this purpose.

Almost half of all respondents (45%) are leveraging a hybrid cloud model, while 40 percent leverage private cloud/on-prem hybrid, 36 percent leverage public cloud/on-prem hybrid, followed by 23 percent who use a private cloud/public cloud hybrid. One-third of those surveyed acknowledged storing sensitive data in the public cloud, and about the same proportion use cloud security services to protect their data in the cloud. More than half (56%) of survey participants are planning a cloud initiative for 2018.

As organizations move to deploy cloud technology at rapid-fire speed, adopting this approach is not without challenges. With a mix of on-premises and cloud-based data sources, many businesses are turning to data virtualization (DV) solutions to take advantage of the agility and flexibility that the cloud provides, and to ensure business professionals can apply the data found in these growing mixed environments. DV is a real-time, agile, data integration methodology that provides a logical view of all enterprise data without having to replicate information into a physical repository, which costs time, money, and resources. More specifically, data virtualization is being used to support:

• Cloud Modernization: Data virtualization facilitates the transition from legacy, typically monolithic applications and application suites deployed on-premises, to specialized SaaS applications in the cloud.
• Cloud Analytics: Data virtualization enables analytics in the cloud by facilitating the movement of data from on-premises operational systems to an analytics platform, and by providing seamless access to all data.
• Hybrid Data Fabric: Data virtualization provides a hybrid data fabric by seamlessly integrating data across applications on-premises and in the cloud.

"While transitioning to cloud can be disruptive, data virtualization can help minimize the impact on business by isolating the changes," said Ravi Shankar, CMO, Denodo. "Without a proper hybrid integration layer, cloud apps and databases can become siloed. Data virtualization can open these silos and allow users to access all their data and take advantage of cloud modernization, analytics, and hybrid data fabric."