SaaS adoption prompting concerns over operational complexity and risk

A rise in SaaS adoption is prompting concerns over operational complexity and risk, a BetterCloud report reveals.

Since 2015, the number of IT-sanctioned SaaS apps has increased tenfold, and it’s expected that by 2025, 85 percent of business apps will be SaaS-based. With SaaS on the rise, 49 percent of respondents are confident in their ability to identify and monitor unsanctioned SaaS usage on company networks—yet 76 percent see unsanctioned apps as a security risk.

And when asked what SaaS applications are likely to hold the most sensitive data across an organization, respondents believe it’s all apps including cloud storage, email, devices, chat apps, password managers, etc.

Concerns when managing SaaS environments

Respondents also highlighted slow, manual management tasks as a prime concern when managing SaaS environments. IT organizations spend over 7 hours offboarding a single employee from a company’s SaaS apps, which takes time and energy from more strategic projects.

“In the earlier part of the year, organizations around the world were faced with powering their entire workforces from home and turned to SaaS to make the shift with as little disruption to productivity as possible,” said David Politis, CEO, BetterCloud.

“Up until this point, most companies were adopting a cloud-first approach for their IT infrastructure — that strategy has now shifted to cloud only. But SaaS growth at this scale has also brought about challenges as our 2020 State of SaaSOps report clearly outlines.

“The findings also show increased confidence and reliance on SaaSOps as the path forward to reigning in SaaS management and security.”

SaaS adoption risk: Key findings

• On average, organizations use 80 SaaS apps today. This is a 5x increase in just three years and a 10x increase since 2015.
• The top two motivators for using more SaaS apps are increasing productivity and reducing costs.
• Only 49 percent of IT professionals inspire confidence in their ability to identify and monitor unsanctioned SaaS usage on company networks—yet more than three-quarters (76 percent) see unsanctioned apps as a security risk.
• The top five places where sensitive data lives are: 1. files stored in cloud storage, 2. email, 3. devices, 4. chat apps, and 5. password managers. But because SaaS apps have become the system of record, sensitive data inevitably lives everywhere in your SaaS environment.
• The top two security concerns are sensitive files shared publicly and former employees retaining data access.
• IT teams spend an average of 7.12 hours offboarding a single employee from a company’s SaaS apps.
• Thirty percent of respondents already use the term SaaSOps in their job title or plan to include it soon.

For the report surveyed nearly 700 IT leaders and security professionals from the world’s leading enterprise organizations. These individuals ranged in seniority from C-level executives to front-line practitioners and included both IT and security department roles.