Security 'biggest cloud storage concern' for businesses

Security remains the number one concern among business executives when it comes to storing data in the cloud, despite accelerated adoption across all industries.

Conducted by big data and analytics firm Teradata, a survey has revealed that more than half of business-critical data will be stored in the cloud by 2019. However, the study also showed that 80 per cent of executives still consider security as the reason they're avoiding a full move to cloud computing.

Specifically, the study showed that 40 per cent of respondents stated that general security risks were holding back their storage of critical data in the cloud, while 25 per cent believed cloud data adoption could result in an increase in security breaches.

Despite these concerns, it's unlikely the acceleration of cloud adoption will slow any time soon. According to statistics, 56 per cent of IT data will reside in the cloud by 2019, along with 53 per cent of customer data and 51 per cent of financial data.

When it comes to specific industries, 59 per cent of respondents stated that they could see adoption increase significantly over the next two years within the healthcare industry, while 48 per cent of telecoms organisations suggested they are anticipating an increase in their cloud storage use by 2019.

"Cloud computing security processes should be designed to address the security controls that the cloud provider will incorporate, in order to maintain the data security, privacy and compliance with necessary regulations, as well as providing a business continuity and data backup plan." said Marc Clark, director of cloud strategy and deployment at Teradata.

"While our study finds widespread concerns, the fact is that cloud storage is growing rapidly, remains hugely cost-effective, and that there are ways to manage it securely."

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