IT Departments are Buying Into the Cloud, But Have Security Concerns

New data from cloud computing researchers is arriving, and it's clear that enterprises everywhere are poised to boost their spending in the cloud, even as concerns over security may hamper adoption of open cloud platforms. Researchers at 2nd Watch, a cloud computing consultant and Amazon Web Services Premier Consulting Partner, have concluded a survey that finds that cloud prices are dropping, while enteprise spending in the cloud is on the rise.

The 2nd Watch survey included more than 100 IT directors, and CRN notes the following regarding the results:

"A large majority, about 80 percent, of IT directors responding to the 2nd Watch survey are up-to-date on developments in the price wars, aware of the major price reductions occurring in the cloud infrastructure market. More than 60 percent said Amazon offered the best price and 70 percent said Amazon offered the best price-to-value."

Public cloud services are one thing, though, and deployments--especially of open cloud platforms--are another thing. As reported here last week, Bitglass' 'Cloud Adoption Report' noted that 52 percent of large companies and one-third of small and medium businesses (SMBs) are not moving to the cloud due to security concerns.

Meanwhile, there is also market research out showing that cloud security concerns within IT departments are not unfounded.  The 2014 Cloud Security Report by security-as-a-service firm Alert Logic includes analysis of responses from administrators of cloud and on-premise infrastructures at 2,200 organizations. The study found that in the past year, brute force attacks on cloud environments climbed from 30 percent to 44 percent of customers, and vulnerability scans increased from 27 percent to 44 percent. The study also found that malware botnet attacks are increasing in cloud environments, gaining from 5 percent to 11 percent over the past 12 months.

These types of security issues will slow down deployment of some cloud platforms, especially open platforms, and may cause many enterprises to favor cloud service providers who can offer rock-solid support.  That could give proven support providers such as Red Hat a leg up in the competitive cloud market.