RESEARCH FINDINGS

The key to strengthening the effectiveness of information security program lies in education, flexibility, fairness and monitoring. The survey indicated respondent or business owners knows data security and privacy risks of adopting cloud computing and the same time, they are under enormous pressure to reduce overhead cost of IT infrastructure and to streamline business operations. The survey findings show the following:
1. Majority of the IT professional believe the adoption of cloud computing bring business innovation, flexibility, agility and reduce cost. However, on the ratio of 6:4 believe there will be lack of compliance in the cloud.
2. Research also shows that 60% of IT professional know data security vulnerabilities on the cloud and could be devastating. The vast majority argue that, providers are not doing enough to curtail data integrity and security. Half of the people I spoke with indicated that, data can be inadvertently being exposed to unauthorized party regardless of which provider you choose. (SAAS or IAAS). This is as a result of shared infrastructure in the cloud.
3. 55% of the respondents are unwilling to adopt cloud application due to security threats and loss of control of company system and data.
4. 8 out of 10 people believe the internal IT system are too expensive, however, they are a bit skeptical about compliance in the cloud. Whilst in the United States of America, there are rule that govern data standard and procedure, the same does not apply to other jurisdiction such as China. Since cloud data centers are scattered around different geographical location and services are shared by different companies, it is real that data could be compromised without following procedural standards.
These findings indicates that, businesses are far more interested with the cloud platform but the fear of security breach is what keep them thinking everyday. It is obvious that the interest in the cloud is constantly growing; however, the security vulnerability on the cloud far out weighed its benefits at least for now.


Reference:
Harold F Tipton, CISSP. Micki Krause, CISSP: Information Security Management Hand Book; Sixth Edition.
http://avanade.dk/_uploaded/pdf/avanadethoughtleadershipcloudsurveyexecutivesummary833173.pdf