Insights

Insights

Commentary: Cloud users want to be on the safe side

Techconsult has just presented the interim results of a long-term study on the position of cloud computing in small and medium-sized enterprises. The data is comparatively valid and gives an accurate picture of the degree to which the new technology is used – a sobering picture, to be more precise.

The study shows that its use will increase by almost 40 percent in the next six months – but that is starting from a relatively low base: In the 3rd quarter of the year, just 11 percent of the companies surveyed used cloud computing solutions. 27 percent stated that they had intensively considered the issue of cloud computing.

Many companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, are still distrustful of cloud computing. That is also confirmed by a study Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) presented in September with the title “User Survey Outsourcing, Cloud & Managed Services 2011.” The consulting firm surveyed more than 300 IT managers from IT user companies on the current focus of their investments. The replies were virtually identical to those in the techconsult study.

But why the reluctance about a solution that is peddled by experts as without a doubt one of the most important innovations for decades? Every player in the industry knows the answer: Fear. Many CIOs are caught in an internal struggle and do not want to move either their data or their applications to the cloud. There is a general state of panic about the security of the data and applications.

Well, there is indeed a raft of threat scenarios that could rob IT managers of their sleep: Data protection must be ensured, all interfaces sealed and communication encrypted, and so on and so forth. There are additionally various possible and impossible scenarios, such as internal data theft, insolvency of the provider or misuse of the cloud for denial-of-service attacks.

Despite these reservations, it can confidently be assumed that the cloud will be a permanent part of CIOs’ repertoire in the years to come. However, providers can speed up this development by offering their customers practicable and workable service level agreements. A cloud that sets CIO trembling is not worth its money.

As soon as cloud providers offer their customers transparent agreements, they will also take up this offering and the amazing growth rates long forecast by analysts – be it techconsult, Gartner, Forrester, IDC or Experton – will become reality.