As companies increasingly shift their information technology operations to the cloud, more and more are adopting so-called “hybrid cloud” solutions. But surprisingly, not everyone shares the same definition of what a hybrid cloud actually is.

A newly published survey by cloud infrastructure company Stratoscale Ltd. found that IT specialists define hybrid cloud somewhat differently to C-level executives. One of the questions posed in the survey was “what does hybrid cloud mean to you?” The answers came up rather different.

Some 44 percent of executives defined hybrid cloud as different workloads belonging in different environments, while 33 percent said it refers to the ability to switch workloads between private and public clouds. In contrast, 39 percent of IT specialists chose the first answers, while 38 percent chose the second.

Stratoscale said its survey also suggests that executives’ perception of hybrid clouds changes as their company’s level of cloud adoption increases. For example, in companies with a cloud adoption rate of less than 20 percent, most executives define hybrid cloud as the ability to move workloads between private and public clouds. But once adoption goes past 20 percent, executives tend to view hybrid cloud as the concept of different workloads belonging in different environments.

Stratoscale quizzed 637 technical professionals for its survey, including IT specialists and C-level executives at enterprises ranging from 100 employees to more than 10,000 employees across multiple industries.

Another interesting finding was that just 15 percent of enterprises in the survey have yet to begin moving to the public cloud. Meanwhile, the majority of those that have made the switch are doing so slowly. At present, 65 percent of companies have migrated less than 20 percent of their workloads to public clouds.

One of the main reasons for this slow pace of change is governance: Some 57 percent of respondents said they were forced to adhere to regulations that prevent them using the public cloud. In addition, 69 percent of executives and 61 percent of IT specialists indicated that they preferred using private clouds for security reasons.

“The findings from our survey confirm what we’re hearing from our customers–although many have started their journey to the public cloud, the vast majority of companies are still running mission critical workloads and sensitive data in private solutions, primarily for security reasons,” Stratoscale Chief Executive Officer Ariel Maislos said in a statement. “It’s clear the hybrid cloud model represents the near- and long-term future for most enterprises, regardless of size.”

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