Security Is Stunting Adoption of Cloud Computing Posted  September 22, 2010 By Sarah Fender

Technology adoption is often driven by a number of complex factors, and nowhere is this more true than with cloud computing. Early on, issues like ownership/portability of data and system accessibility/performance were major obstacles. As our work habits shifted, remote accessibility became a requirement which cloud services could better support, and organizations became more comfortable with the concept as a whole. Today, the promise of reduced cost and less system management is incredibly attractive to budget conscious and overworked IT departments driving a new wave of interest in cloud computing. As companies look at more widespread use of cloud services, concern about security in the cloud has taken on new importance.

We wondered what role is security playing in cloud computing adoption today? So we asked IT professionals from a wide variety of industries to provide insight into their organizations’ current and planned use of cloud services, what is driving or hindering adoption, and what can be done about it.

Download 2010 Cloud Computing Survey: Security Concerns Hinder Adoption of Cloud Services

The results point to a strong interest in cloud computing, but an equally strong fear about the security implications. Security was a primary barrier to adoption for cloud computing for nearly three-quarters of our survey respondents (73%). Ultimately, security concerns are holding companies back from adopting cloud computing. 42% of survey respondents reported this to be the case with another 30% unsure and only 28% indicating security was not a deterrent to adoption of cloud services.

Many organizations WANT to make the leap to cloud computing. Reduced cost (65%), Scalability (62%), and Rapid Implementation (50%) are seen as primary benefits to cloud computing, and 87% of respondents indicated that they were planning to at least evaluate the use of cloud services. However, it’s clear that the necessary security measures aren’t yet in place to allow them to safely take that first step. The top three security measures respondents thought were critical to securing the cloud included: Encryption (84%), Multi-Factor Authentication (81%), and Intrusion Prevention (80%).

Due to the very nature of cloud computing, multi-factor authentication can be one of the more challenging security measures to implement. Security tokens don’t scale to meet the needs of cloud computing. The cost and effort required to deploy, provision, and support security tokens is inconsistent with the scalability of the cloud applications they are used to protect. PhoneFactor’s phone-based authentication system, which leverages the user’s phone for strong, multi-factor authentication, mirrors the scalability and cost savings that are driving organizations to adopt cloud computing in the first place. In addition, PhoneFactor supports authentication to applications like Outlook Web Access, remote access VPNs, and websites, allowing a single authentication system for all applications regardless of whether they are hosted on-premise or in the cloud.

With systems like PhoneFactor in place, it is likely that organizations will move more quickly toward the adoption of cloud services, particularly those that provide the security measures they believe are critical to keeping their users and their data safe.

- Sarah