Australian businesses are flocking to cloud rollouts even though the majority of IT executives still harbour major concerns about their security and fully 40 percent are “anxious” about potential breaches, a global study from BT has found.
Data security was the main concern of 84 percent of the 640 IT decision makers, from 11 countries and a range of industries, surveyed by Vanson Bourne on BT's behalf. And while 76 percent of the Australian respondents said they are adopting cloud-based storage and Web applications within their businesses, their confidence in those solution sis quite low.
Fully 62 percent of Australian respondents believe that all cloud services are inherently insecure, and 53 percent said they had experienced a data breach incident where their cloud service provider was at fault.
Nonetheless, 61 percent said they had adopted mass-marked cloud services designed for consumers, rather than higher-end and often more-secure alternatives designed for enterprise use.
“This survey has exposed an interesting paradox,” BT Security president Mark Hughes said in a statement. “On the one hand, decision makers are concerned about the security implications of using public cloud services but on the other, their buying decisions seem to be driven by short term cost perceptions.”
Cost issues weighed heavily in the research, with 60 percent of Australian respondents arguing that they believe enterprise cloud applications and services are too expensive. Some 48 percent believe that consumer-targeted applications and services are as effective as those designed specifically for enterprise users.
“Enterprise cloud applications and services are designed to help businesses realise the possibilities in the cloud while substantially decreasing risk,” said Hughes. “I would suggest organisations undertake a thorough risk analysis before opting for mass market cloud services.”
This article is brought to you by Enex TestLab, content directors for CSO Australia.