Time to tackle cloud’s demons

Businesses leaders remain mostly sceptical over cloud-based services as we kick off 2013 – despite apparently understanding the benefits. That's chief among the findings of research published late last year by the respected global IT professionals' organisation ISACA. It suggests that, while private cloud scores better than the equivalent public or hybrid services, take-up remains low in the face of continuing concerns. Commenting on ISACA's 2012 IT Risk/Reward Barometer report, international vice president Marc Vael said: "What is apparent from this study is the perception of control... My thought is that enterprises are facing a similar dilemma to when first contemplating outsourcing. It is the psychology of relinquishing control that needs to be addressed." Vael believes that's why there is greater faith in private cloud services, where the user retains responsibility for system management. However, he also points out that, sadly, this approach offers fewer advantages than either the hybrid or public cloud alternatives. There is an obvious paradox here. Virtually all of the drivers behind cloud computing are business related, not technical – and extremely attractive in these straitened times. There's nothing difficult or worrying about the promise of cutting IT costs, increasing IT (and business) efficiency, improving access to data (including mobile) and achieving much easier, faster and cheaper system scalability – both up and down. So, given that all the latter are regularly cited as key benefits by ISACA's cloud-using respondents, surely it's time to deal with our demons and look again at cloud utilisation? That means sorting out our issues (real or, more likely, largely imagined, since nearly 25% of ISACA's respondents are using private cloud computing for mission-critical services) with data security and compliance. And we have to do this ourselves. Because, while it's good news that the coalition is now supporting 13 business-led R&D projects aimed at addressing the challenges around cloud adoption (£5 million plus industry match funding – and with big names including BAE Systems and Jaguar Land Rover), most won't be reporting back for another two years. Which is an opportunity missed. As Vael puts it: "Over the next 12 months, I am hopeful that we will witness an evolution in awareness... This is paramount if we are to bridge the gap between realising the business drivers and [cloud's] adoption, balanced by the risk from a security perspective."