The cloud security level

The trend is very much toward hybrid models, because cloud and on-premises solutions will more or less coexist in the future.

For various reasons, it is not even possible for many companies to transfer certain parts of their legacy IT systems to the cloud, for example because the applications must remain unchanged due to process requirements or regulatory requirements speak against a cloud migration (see also page 24).

When it comes to data security, 55 percent of the IT decision-makers surveyed even prefer the cloud to on-premises operation because, in the view of the respondents, cloud providers can offer higher security standards.

However, according to 79 percent of the study participants, it is also important to note that hybrid IT landscapes lead to higher security requirements resulting from the networking of locally installed applications with cloud solutions.

According to the Lünendonk study, 40 percent of the CIOs and IT managers surveyed will focus on migrating on-premises applications to the cloud in 2020. 36 percent of the managers surveyed also want to focus on building hybrid cloud models.

When asked why companies move data to the private or public cloud in the first place, most companies (78 percent) are primarily concerned with technical issues such as the flexible and scalable operation of applications.

72 percent also see covering peak loads as a key reason for operating their applications in the cloud. "Legacy systems often have the problem that they do not have open interfaces for connecting third-party applications, so that new digital products can often only be integrated with a great deal of effort.

Migrating legacy applications to the cloud is therefore a popular tool in IT modernization," explains Mario Zillmann, Partner at Lünendonk and Hossenfelder and author of the study.

For most of the IT decision-makers surveyed, the realignment of the IT organization is very relevant due to the many new demands on the IT department.