Decisions concerning the security of data in the cloud has shifted from the IT room to the boardroom, according to a newly published survey, titled Cloud Adoption, Practices and Priorities Survey Report, from the Cloud Security Alliance. The report includes responses from more than 200 IT and security professionals varying in company size and industries from the Americas, EMEA and APAC regions.
Some highlights:
- Security of data remains a top barrier to cloud adoption
- Nearly 72 percent or IT managers surveyed admitted that they did not know the number of shadow IT apps within their organization, but certainly want to.
- Organizations are still moving forward in adopting cloud services, with 74 percent of respondents indicating they are either moving full steam ahead, or with caution, in the adoption of cloud services.
- Respondents from APAC indicated the highest level of adoption plans. However, 34 percent of respondents indicated that a lack of knowledge and experience on the part of IT and business managers was a main reason for slow or lack of adoption.
- Companies with more than 5,000 employees are more likely to have a cloud governance committee (35 percent versus 12 percent), have a policy on acceptable cloud usage (61 percent versus 45 percent), and have a security awareness training program (26 percent versus 20 percent) compared to companies with fewer than 5,000 employees.
“As companies move data to the cloud, they are looking to put in place policies and processes so that employees can take advantage of cloud services that drive business growth without compromising the security, compliance, and governance of corporate data,” said Jim Reavis, CEO of the CSA. “We hope that this report provides companies with some good peer insight so that they can make better decisions to help confidently and responsibly accelerate the use of cloud services in their environment.”
The report is posted online.
