Barracuda Survey: ASEAN SMEs Embrace Cloud

Singapore, August 15, 2016– Barracuda Networks, Inc.
(NYSE: CUDA), a leading provider of cloud-enabled security and storage
solutions, today shares key findings from a survey on cloud adoption by SMEs in
the ASEAN region, including Singapore.

According
to the online survey completed by 130 IT professionals from SMEs located in
Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Indonesia – whilst cloud is now achieving
heavy adoption, the overall sentiment is that SMEs lack a clear strategy in their
approach to cloud implementations. Barracuda commissioned the study conducted
by Data
& Storage Asean (DSA) in June 2016. The survey results provide insight into
the views and readiness for IT professionals to adopt cloud in their
businesses, including perceived risks associated with cloud computing.

James Forbes-May, Vice President of APAC
Sales shares
that the survey showed that while 20 percent of responders were already
extensively using cloud services, 71 percent said that they are not likely to
adopt a cloud first strategy.

“At a macro level, the key findings of the survey show that while cloud
adoption is high overall, the appetite to move the entire data center to cloud
is still limited,” explains Forbes-May. “Additionally, 69 percent of participants reported
having no preference on cloud use, which points to cloud adoption among the
SMEs in the region still being very reactive.”

“A Cloud First strategy is a new development in the
SME industry where, businesses prioritise moving as much of their IT processes
to a cloud platform in order to minimise the on-premises foot print. So while
SMEs are starting to add cloud as a part of their strategy, they are not
necessarily pushing everything to cloud just yet,” adds Forbes-May.

One of the key finding of the survey is that nearly
three quarters (73%) of ASEAN SMEs still feel that their data is most secure
when under their own IT department rather than under a cloud service provider.

“Trust is a major concern for all businesses, and
often the perception remains that their data is safer in their own hands. The
idea of trusting faceless employees of a cloud provider is still an alien
concept to many and cloud providers will need to invest time in addressing
these concerns.”

“Many cloud providers have implemented enterprise
level security standards, which are often not accessible or cost effective for
SMEs to adopt on their own,” explains Forbes-May. “SMEs are realizing this as well, as the survey shows
these SMEs are increasingly trusting cloud providers, with 42% stating they do
trust that cloud providers can keep their data safe by providing fundamental
tools and services to secure data.

The survey results also highlight the fact that 28
percent of respondents identified backup and data recovery as their biggest
concern when moving to cloud, while 26 percent identified security as their
biggest concern during migration to cloud.

“More than 50 percent of ASEAN SMEs place their
biggest concerns of cloud migration on security and data protection. Data
migration and protection has always been the biggest headache for businesses
whether on-premises or over cloud. Data protection methods have seen tremendous
innovation in the last decade. We believe we have a great opportunity to enable
customers with secure cloud adoption that allows them to leverage the
efficiencies and scalability of the cloud, while still making sure their data
and assets are safe.”

“At Barracuda, our backup solutions
have evolved with the needs of our customers.  While businesses have been
working hard with the explosion of Big Data, shrinking IT budgets, increased
mobility; Barracuda remains on track in providing innovative, powerful,
affordable and easy-to-use backup solutions that enable our customers to
confidently protect their data,” continues Forbes-May.

Resources:

Infographic – Barracuda Survey: ASEAN SMEs Embrace Cloud
[http://datastorageasean.com/analyst-comments-opinion-byline/appetite-cloud-survey-infographic]

Full
Survey –
Appetite for Cloud – ASEAN trends in Cloud Sentiment [http://datastorageasean.com/white-papers/appetite-cloud-asean-trends-cloud-sentiment-supported-barracuda]

Barracuda (NYSE: CUDA) simplifies IT with
cloud-enabled solutions that empower customers to protect their networks,
applications, and data, regardless of where they reside. These powerful,
easy-to-use and affordable solutions are trusted by more than 150,000
organizations worldwide and are delivered in appliance, virtual appliance,
cloud and hybrid deployments. Barracuda’s customer-centric business model
focuses on delivering high-value, subscription-based IT solutions that provide
end-to-end network and data security. For additional information, please
visit barracuda.com.