Companies say they plan to increase their cloud security budgets by 37 percent to protect sensitive data and meet regulatory requirements.

According to a Fortinet survey of 927 security professionals worldwide, a large majority of companies are concerned about cloud security. This also leads to an increase in cloud security budgets. Although hybrid and multi-cloud environments are difficult to secure due to their complexity, most companies still prefer them.

Preferred hybrid and multi-cloud environments

Fortinet conducted a survey of 927 security professionals worldwide and offers insights into current trends in cloud security. The study shows that the majority of companies (78%) prefer a hybrid or multi-cloud strategy this year. 43 percent use a combination of cloud and an on-premises IT environment, 35 percent use a multi-cloud strategy.

Given the rapidly growing threat landscape, companies feel the need to implement more stringent security measures. In addition, the advent of AI has also created numerous cyber threats. Up to 96 percent of all companies say they are moderately or very concerned about cloud security. Cybersecurity is therefore indeed a priority for most companies. 61 percent of respondents expect their cloud security budget to increase in the coming year.

Cloud challenges

One of the biggest cloud challenges facing enterprises today is securing their multi-cloud environments. Security and compliance issues are the biggest challenge (59%) and prevent rapid implementation of multi-cloud strategies.

Hybrid and multi-cloud environments are difficult to secure due to their complexity. An overwhelming majority of respondents (95%) believe that an integrated cloud security platform with a central dashboard can help ensure consistent data protection across all cloud environments.