Security Clouding Cloud Future

It’s official, at least according to the latest report from Cisco, cloud computing is being held back by corporate concerns about security.  That, in itself, is no surprise but the reasons for those concerns should be.

The report states that with each advance in technology that enhances connectivity and communication, the migration from the ‘traditional’ office environment, where work happens behind fortified network walls, will intensify. The traditional corporate perimeter, with clearly identifiable boundaries, has diminished. In its place, a network with limitless potential is rising—one where companies, their customers, and their partners demand access to information whenever and wherever they need it. Of course, with this migration comes added risk.

Cloud computing increases workforce accessibility to critical business applications, data, and services, while providing a new platform that can help ignite or accelerate new business models. However, many organizations are steadfastly resistant to cloud computing, uncomfortable with relinquishing control of processes and data. Meanwhile, others are perhaps too quick to embrace the cloud, blindly putting faith in their chosen service provider’s ability to secure their data and prevent any regulatory headaches.

It appears that the high levels of trust in the cloud computing concept echo the acceptance of social networking and the willingness of computer users to transmit sensitive information in ways that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. This false sense of security is being carried over into the work environment and should be a concern to business managers.

Communications service providers viewing cloud computing as a panacea for dwindling revenues and ‘fat pipe syndrome’ will have to be able to satisfy big business that security is being enforced. This will also add cost to the cloud offering but it may well be the most important investment a CSP makes!