Security, privacy concern impede cloud computing take-up

Peter Dinham
Wednesday, 16 September 2009 10:14

IT Industry - Market

Security and privacy concerns, and the integration of cloud-based applications with existing systems, are the biggest barriers to adoption of cloud computing, although security and privacy easily outweighs other issues, including integration, as the major concern for enterprise users when considering cloud adoption.

An online poll recently conducted by Unisys, revealed that security and data privacy concerns remain the most significant impediment to the adoption of cloud computing among enterprise users, with 51 percent of 312 respondents indicating that was their major barrier to adoption of the technology.

According to Unisys vice president, global IT outsourcing solutions, Sam Gross, after privacy and security, the next-highest barrier to adoption of cloud computing - cited by 21 percent of the respondents - was integration of cloud-based applications with existing systems.

“Concerns about the ability to bring systems back in-house and regulatory/compliance issues were cited by 18 percent and 10 percent of respondents, respectively.”

Gross says that the poll results corroborated the outcome of another quick poll Unisys conducted in a June 2009 webinar on protecting data in the cloud, which was attended by more than 100 major firms and government agencies, when respondents answering the question, "What is your greatest concern about moving workloads to the cloud?”, 72 percent cited security concerns, and other considerations ranked significantly lower on the scale of urgency – “for example, integration issues were next highest at 34 percent.

"These poll results confirm what we continue to hear from our clients as well as industry analysts. Until they are convinced that there is ‘industrial-strength’ security in the cloud, CIOs will remain reluctant to move more than development and test systems into that environment. This is why we have made comprehensive security and data protection integral parts of the Unisys cloud computing strategy and solutions.”

Gross pointed to Unisys’ recently announcement of its cloud computing strategy and solutions portfolio designed to help clients break through the barriers to adoption of cloud computing “while safeguarding operations and lowering IT costs.

“The Unisys cloud computing strategy enables clients to choose the type of data center computing services that best meet their business objectives, from self-managed, automated IT infrastructures to Unisys-managed cloud services.

“Underpinning this strategy is Unisys Stealth Solution, an innovative, patent-pending data protection technology which was initially designed for military and government applications and is now available to commercial clients.”