Analyzing the IDG Enterprise Cloud Computing Study: Challenges & Barriers in Cloud Adoption

 Previos IDG Enterprise Cloud Computing Study blogs: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 In this last part of the blog series on IDG enterprise cloud computing survey, we will try understanding the challenges associated with cloud adoption and wrap up underscoring the importance of cloud and its adoption. In the previous blog we tried understanding various features of the cloud and follow its up with other aspects in this blog. Among the challenges faced in cloud adoption, it is obvious that security of information continues to be a thorn in the flesh that enterprises are always wary of. Till date, as per the survey, 44% of the larger scale enterprises handle the information security part by themselves while 28% of smaller enterprises do it by themselves. An alarmingly low 6% of the companies have handed over the information security process to their cloud providers describing the serious concerns that the organizations have with respect to information security. However, the trend is improving with 40% of the companies collaborating with the cloud providers to jointly manage the task of securing sensitive mission critical information. The trend is more prominent in

smaller companies wherein 50% of them are jointly managing security in collaboration with the service providers. To the query if the companies are confident of the security of the assets placed in the cloud, 74% of the respondents either replied that they are very confident or somewhat confident thereby reflecting the overall fact that the efforts of the service providers to assure maximum information security is bearing fruition. Enterprises today are more focused on developing data security strategies. According to the survey, 63% of the larger enterprises and 45% of the smaller enterprises are implementing identity/access management controls and 59% of the enterprises are extending corporate security policies into the cloud. While 49% of the larger companies are developing IT security talent and increasing training investments, 47% of the companies are finding and plugging the security gaps in the cloud environment. More importantly, companies are ensuring that their security solutions are not hardware or location dependent. As expressed earlier, majority of the companies want to ensure the security of the cloud service providers meet their compliance standards before adopting the cloud. This concern is the most important among the companies with 56% of them agreeing to the fact. Enterprises want guaranteed security from the service providers. Other concerns include reviewing the efficiency of existing applications before migrating their applications, establishing service level benchmarks and then crafting SLAs based on the set benchmarks, ensuring that the data sets needed by cloud apps can be moved to the cloud and improving control and management of virtual machines. In a nut shell, although there are concerns relating to cloud adoption, the concerted efforts of the providers in upgrading to the latest technologies is helping the increasing adoption of cloud services by many enterprises. Cloud investments continue to rise and enterprise organizations are investing more than the SMBs. Increasing number of organizations have identified and are also happy with the IT operations that have been moved to the cloud. Consistent performance, enhanced security and availability are the major aspects that the enterprises are looking for in the service providers. DoubleHorn is a leading Cloud Solutions Provider founded in January 2005 and based in Austin, Texas. Our solutions combine products from the leading Cloud providers and are carefully crafted to meet your requirements. As a trusted advisor, we help you choose the right solution, implement it and help you maintain with our decade old expertise as a Cloud Services provider. If you are new to the cloud and not sure how to get started, contact us for a complimentary initial

assessment at solutions@doublehorn.com or (855) 618-6423 FREE.