25+ Hybrid Cloud Storage Statistics To Know Before You Adopt One

Ever since cloud storage emerged as an easier alternative to on-premise infrastructure, businesses have had major doubts: Should they go for public cloud storage or private?  How can they connect their on-premise infrastructure with the cloud if they need to? However, the debate is no longer there. 

Today, hybrid cloud storage software offers solutions to these questions. The hybrid cloud model seamlessly connects public and private cloud environments with on-premise infrastructure in a cost-effective manner. 

The model is a boon for companies prioritizing IT modernization and digital transformation with cloud adoption. With hybrid cloud storage, they can balance the benefits of cloud storage with the security and control of on-premises infrastructure. As a result, adopting hybrid cloud storage solutions has ratcheted up.

To better understand the latest trends surrounding hybrid cloud storage adoption, we surveyed over 100 users in 2022. We were interested to know what they use it for, what benefits they gain, and what their pain points are. Here’s what we found out!

Hybrid cloud storage benefits statistics

Combining on-premise infrastructure with cloud computing via hybrid cloud storage is a happy marriage. It offers plenty of advantages, ranging from agility to scalability. Look at some of the benefits that motivate businesses to adopt hybrid cloud storage:

Cost savings, scalability, and business continuity

The exponential growth of big data has led companies to look for scalable but cost-effective data storage solutions. They want to democratize data and make it easy for as many worldwide users as possible to make better data-driven decisions.

While public and private cloud storage solutions provide data accessibility and storage scalability, it’s extremely difficult to migrate all data from an on-premise data center to cloud storage in one go.

Further, in a public cloud, questions about security and control over data persist as the storage space is shared with other users. Private cloud storage, on the other hand, can be expensive and needs more resources to manage. 

A hybrid cloud storage solution solves these problems. With hybrid cloud storage, enterprises can migrate their data to the most logical place, whether on-premise, across multiple clouds, or in edge computing environments. The hybrid model also provides portability and interoperability between all infrastructures, making moving and accessing data simpler.

Businesses can scale their cloud infrastructure as needed and pay per usage without expanding their on-premise data centers, making it less expensive. The hybrid cloud architecture also ensures business continuity and makes disaster recovery easier in case of disruptions with continuous data backups. In fact, most hybrid cloud storage vendors promise 99.9% uptime.

All these advantages make hybrid cloud storage a perfect solution for businesses on their cloud journey.

• More than two-thirds of users consider cost savings the biggest benefit driving them to use hybrid cloud storage.
• Gaining scalability also encourages 62% of users to adopt hybrid cloud storage.

• 48.1% of users think the cloud’s ability to process large datasets is the biggest benefit that inspires them to use hybrid cloud storage.

• In addition, 86% of users note a productivity increase since adopting hybrid cloud storage solutions.

Connectivity and backup restoration

We asked our respondents which aspects of hybrid cloud storage save the most time, and here’s what they said.

• One in two users notes that the hybrid cloud storage’s ability to connect resources and collaborate with colleagues saves them the most time.
• 37% of users found the hybrid cloud storage’s ability to restore backups faster during outages saving them the most time.
• 9% of users also indicate hybrid cloud storage makes it easier to be General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliant, which saves time in the long run.

Hybrid cloud storage adoption statistics

With the obvious benefits, businesses are widely adopting hybrid cloud storage solutions. The trend is visible from the following statistics.

• Nearly 70% of our survey respondents had used hybrid cloud storage solutions for more than a year.

• 49.5% of hybrid cloud storage users prefer pairing multiple cloud solutions to meet their needs over using a single, all-in-one cloud service.
• More than 50% of businesses are open to moving sensitive data to the cloud.

Businesses that want to deploy cloud integrations flexibly on a need-basis prefer pairing multiple cloud solutions. They want to take advantage of best-of-breed technologies that outshine competing offers while avoiding vendor lock-in that creates unnecessary dependence on a single cloud vendor.

On the other hand, enterprises that want to avoid adding complexity to their IT infrastructure prefer investing in a single vendor’s cloud stack instead of working with multiple cloud vendors.

Whatever the user's choices might be, the big cloud companies like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure cloud services, and Google Cloud stand to profit. Their cloud offerings include a range of software-as-a-service (SaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) that can be deployed in a public, private, or hybrid environment. Further, they provide these cloud services as both an all-in-one cloud stack and as standalone products that can pair with the other cloud vendors’ services.

Hybrid cloud storage features statistics

Several features of hybrid cloud architectures give it an edge over public and private cloud storage. For instance, hybrid cloud architectures allow for secure multi-cloud deployment, which means a business can utilize a particular cloud service from multiple cloud vendors without a hitch. Take a look at some other hybrid cloud storage features that users consider the most important.

Security and flexibility: crucial hybrid cloud storage features

• More than one-fourth of customers (26.7%) regard security as the most important feature of hybrid cloud storage.
• 20% of users consider flexibility, data access, and retrieval as the most critical features of hybrid cloud storage.
• Another 13% indicate integration with other applications as the most important feature.
• A minority of users also find orchestration – the process of automating, managing, and coordinating workflows on the cloud – as the important feature of hybrid cloud storage.

The hybrid cloud model lets companies mix and match environments that work best for their data and applications. This feature is especially useful for businesses in highly regulated industries like finance, healthcare, IT, and other sectors that deal with confidential information. They can easily store sensitive data on their premises and connect it to the cloud, ensuring security and compliance.

In addition, many hybrid cloud platforms today are secure by design. They provide access control, data encryption, security updates, and search for any cybersecurity incidents around the clock. They supply cloud storage usage and audit logs that track the details of each task.

They also continuously replicate data from on-premise and cloud storage in multiple locations, making it easier to recover data in the event of planned or unplanned outages. From a user’s perspective, these kinds of features make hybrid cloud storage ideal for data security in the age of rising threats like ransomware or distributed denial of services (DDoS) attacks.

The other significant feature of hybrid cloud storage is the flexibility to store, move, and access data from on-premise and cloud infrastructure. This provides organizations the opportunity to take advantage of their structured and unstructured data to their best potential.

Companies can easily move a large data set that they can’t easily process in a private cloud or on-premise to a scalable public cloud. Or they can move data they haven’t used for a while to cloud storage to be archived, saving space in their on-premise data centers.

A well-configured hybrid cloud environment offers seamless integration with other programs with application programming interfaces (API). They also help companies automate cloud management workflows like provisioning storage spaces, keeping continuous backups, or archiving old data. The orchestration means IT staff don’t have to manually handle automation tasks, freeing up resources for more productive work.

However, our survey shows users employ only some hybrid cloud features. 

• One in two hybrid cloud storage users leaves at least  2-5 features unused.
• One in five customers leaves more than five features unused in their hybrid cloud storage solutions.
• Only 28% of customers have left fewer than two features unused.

A simple reason could be the increased complexity of using cloud and on-premise storage.  Users typically lack visibility into every feature that could possibly help in such an environment. In some cases, these unused features and cloud resources lead to exorbitant cloud payments.

Hybrid cloud storage challenges statistics

Roadblocks arise any time you adopt new technology. Take a look at some challenges hybrid cloud solutions users face when adopting the new platform.

Compatibility, data migration, and security

• 37% of users see compatibility and data migration as the biggest pain point of using the hybrid cloud storage solution.
• Compliance, security, and DDoS prevention are the biggest challenge for about a quarter of hybrid cloud storage users.
• 15% feel the software is difficult to implement.
• 13% also consider bad user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) as their biggest obstacles in using hybrid cloud storage.

Compatibility and data migration stand above the rest as the biggest issues respondents face when adopting hybrid cloud storage. Any incompatibility between legacy infrastructure and the new storage solution makes adopting the hybrid cloud storage solution difficult. This, in turn, makes it hard to transfer data between legacy and cloud infrastructure.

The second biggest challenge enterprises face with hybrid cloud storage is ensuring data security and compliance. It’s interesting to note that while users consider security as the most important feature of hybrid cloud storage, they also consider it a challenge. This probably shows the lingering doubt among users with regard to how secure cloud storage is.

Apart from these challenges, some users also find difficulty when the implementation process of the solution is complicated and when the UX is lousy.

While large organizations might have the resources to deal with these challenges with their budget, resources, and experiences, small and medium-sized businesses probably find it extremely difficult to surmount these difficulties. Cloud vendors need to take note of these challenges and help their users navigate their cloud adoption journey with less trouble.

Why users switch hybrid cloud storage vendors

Even though switching cloud vendors isn’t easy, users are open to changing their hybrid cloud storage providers for the following reasons.

• About a third of users mention ease of use as the biggest motivator for changing hybrid cloud storage providers.
• 27% of users say the availability of better options in the market motivates them to switch vendors.
• Price is the third biggest motivator for switching hybrid cloud storage providers, with 22% of users mentioning it.
• 11% of users cite confusing tiered storage provided by vendors as the biggest motivator for switching.
• 10% of users indicate they would switch if their hybrid cloud storage doesn’t meet their work requirements.

Get the best of all worlds

Our survey shows that hybrid cloud storage provides businesses with better security, improved performance, and flexibility in a cost-effective manner. While challenges are a part of the process, companies on their road to digital transformation prioritize adopting a hybrid cloud strategy. If you’re currently debating whether to get on the hybrid bandwagon, this is your sign to get on board. Otherwise, you risk being left at the station while your competitors travel ahead.

Want to learn more about how you can migrate to the cloud? Read more on cloud migration and get all your doubts cleared up.