'Opinion divided' over cloud security
2009-11-11
Opinion is divided when it comes to sensitive data security in cloud computing, a survey has suggested.
Half of respondents to a Proofpoint and Osterman Research poll of more than 200 IT professionals said they believe that if they stored information in the cloud, there would be a greater risk of the data being compromised or being in violation of government data protection statutes.
Almost half (43 per cent) said they felt cloud computing was less secure than managing information in-house, compared to the 26 per cent who disagreed with them. Just under a third (31 per cent) responded that they were unsure which would be a safer form of data storage.
"There's still a significant amount of fear, uncertainly and doubt surrounding data security and financial payback issues," admitted Gary Steele, chief executive officer of Proofpoint, a provider of software-as-a-service email security, email archiving and data loss prevention solutions.
Confusion still seems to be an issue for a number of IT professionals out there when it comes to the technology. Close to 40 per cent of respondents admitted that they were generally confused when presented with the term "cloud computing" as there are many definitions of it.
Meanwhile, just over a fifth (24 per cent) stated that they believed their chief executive officer (CEO) would be able to define cloud computing, compared to the 59 per cent who claimed their CEOs would not be up to the task.
A third (33 per cent) believed cloud computing was more hype than substance, indicating that there is still some doubt over the much talked-about technology.
Last month, Gartner predicted that IT organisations will invest more in private cloud services than in those from external providers through to 2012.
Phil Dawson, research vice-president at Gartner, said: "With cloud offerings coming in the form of services, this means that the IT organisation will be replaced by relationships to many cloud computing service providers, each for one or a handful of services."
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