Three quarters (79%) of decision-makers surveyed said security is their main concern regarding cloud-based services, while almost half (49%) said they are ‘very or extremely anxious’ about the security implications of these services. The latter marks a 10% increase from previous research carried out in 2012.
The report – which surveyed 640 IT decision-makers in medium to large organizations across 11 countries and a range of sectors – reveals that adoption of cloud services has increased despite concerns over their security. Seventy per cent of respondents are adopting cloud storage and web applications within their business, while 50% say they have adopted consumer rather than enterprise cloud services, which they believe serve their purposes just as well.
“It is an interesting paradox,” says President of BT Security Mark Hughes. “On the one hand, decision-makers are concerned about the security implications of using public cloud services but, on the other, their buying decisions seem to be driven by short-term cost perceptions.” He adds, “Every organization has a different appetite for risk and these need to be factored into the buying decision equation.”
_________________________________________________