Execs Use Public Cloud To Flout IT Policy

Nearly three quarters of high level executives see the public cloud as a way of getting around IT, despite most acknowledging that it doesn’t provide adequate security controls.

The findings were the result of a survey conducted by Forrester and BMC, which highlighted the growing divide between business leaders and IT departments over cloud strategy.

Growing Tensions

According to the survey, increasing pressure is being placed on IT departments to reduce cost and complexity while simultaneously implementing fast, low cost software systems onto the cloud.

Cloud strategy is seen as a high priority for 81 percent of the 327 respondents from Europe, the US and Asia, with 73 percent seeing the cloud as a way of getting around IT departments and strategies for simplification and cost reduction.

Simplifying cloud strategy is seen by many to be a key target for 2012, but attempts are being hampered by the fact that 58 percent are running mission-critical workloads on the public cloud, without a policy and 36 percent with one.

The majority believe that IT departments should be responsible for ensuring public clouds met their company’s requirements for performance, security and availability, with 37 percent saying that they saw hybrid clouds as the future. However 61 percent admitted that it would be difficult to provide the same level of management across both public and private cloud services.

“The conclusion is that the need for a comprehensive, unified environment is becoming a top priority for business to connect everything – from the mainframe to the cloud,” commented Mark Settle, BMC CIO.

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