Why does the cloud scare us? In a world where information is power, even the illusion of not having control over your information is a scary proposition—a view still held by many enterprises. On its surface, the cloud is somewhat of an abstract concept, where information is floating around the vast Internet; however, as the technology grows and becomes more widely adopted and depended upon, the concern over security becomes increasingly unfounded.
Jeff Wilson, an industry analyst for Infonetics Research, notes that the long-term outlook for managed security services – including those used in cloud services – is strong, even with potential stumbling blocks. The corresponding Infonetics research states that the market for managed security services is expected to grow 45 percent over the next five years. While this inherently entails an increase of possible security threats, increased security precautions will certainly grow as well. In light of this, cloud-based security revenue is expected to grow to $9.2 billion from 2012 to 2017 at a compound annual growth rate of 10.8 percent.
Of course, the question of cloud security may never be answered, even after reading these numbers. However, Mike Lynch, founder of Autonomy, states that it is in fact a bridge that has been crossed long ago. Commonly, the question of cloud security’s viability is really a response to a simple lack of information and understanding. By conducting proper research and training of cloud security services, it will be found that the cloud (when properly implemented and taken care of) is the most reliable future of data storage and security.
