AWS is top enterprise cloud service – but beware the consumer threat

Grazed from CloudTech. Author: James Bourne.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the most popular enterprise cloud service according to a report released today from Skyhigh Networks – but the research also fired a broadside at how companies are struggling to block consumer products. The reports, which are quarterly and based on data from more than 1.6 million users, noted a huge disparity in companies saying they block certain services and the amount of employees actually blocked.

Take file sharing provider Dropbox. It’s a very popular service to block, with 80% of firms surveyed saying they nix it. Yet only 21% of users are blocked. It gets worse the further you look. Half of companies claim to block iCloud, yet the actual block rate is only 9%. For Netflix (40% and 4%) and Instagram (48% and 4%), it’s a similar story. Only Facebook has a good hit rate – 50% of companies say they block it, and 31% of users are actually blocked…

The remaining number – in Dropbox’s case, 59% of users – is what Skyhigh calls the “cloud enforcement gap.” This can come about in various ways. Either the cloud service provider proffers a new URL which isn’t picked up on by the IT department, or block rates aren’t enforced by certain geographies, or exemptions to particular groups get picked up on and shared around…

Read more from the source @ http://www.cloudcomputing-news.net/news/2014/oct/21/aws-top-enterprise-cloud-service-beware-consumer-threat/