Privacy, not security, top worry for cloud

Australian organisations are still the early adopters for cloud in the Asia-Pacific region, but are now less worried about security and more concerned about data privacy and control, according to a study undertaken by Forrester Consulting.

(Fluffy Clouds image by Sherrie Thai, CC2.0)

The study, which was commissioned by VMware, found that the percentage of organisations planning to leverage private and public clouds had increased from 39 per cent in 2010 to 43 per cent in 2011.

The study found that security, which has traditionally been the number one concern for businesses moving to the cloud, was beginning to be less of an issue.

"Data privacy is still one of the major barriers in this market. This year it overtook security as the number one cloud concern," said Forrester vice president and principal analyst, John Brand. "Organisations are thinking about how they manage this environment now rather than simply penetration and adoption of the technology into the organisation."

VMware Australia and New Zealand managing director, Duncan Bennet, said that in addition to the maturity of the cloud industry, one of the reasons for the change in concerns may be due to privacy laws and companies wanting to keep track of data.

"The study clearly shows that Australian businesses have serious concerns about data residency — and that if they embrace cloud computing, they are likely to look for offerings that keep data onshore. Businesses do not want to fall foul of Australia’s privacy regulations, and they want to know exactly where their data is at any given time.

According to Brand, the study also showed that the maturity of the industry meant there were different challenges for businesses adopting cloud.

"The first step was employing virtualisation. The second step was usually about provisioning and making it easier to provision that environment. Now it's about the management and control of the environment," he said.