Security Tops Readers’ Cloud Woes

eWEEK readers may be getting reconciled to the cloud for their IT, but security is their number one concern before going ahead with the move.

The number one obstacle to adopting the cloud is security, receiving 19 percent of the votes cast in a poll which asked eWEEK readers what the main barrier was to them adopting IT which was provided as a service on the web. However, although readers have been critical of the cloud in the past, now only eight percent said it is a bad idea in itself.

Cloud needs security, reliability and networks

Readers seem to be taking a practical view of what needs to be in place before adopting the cloud: the top four barriers were security (19 percent), reliability (13 percent) and then “network performance” and “loss of control” (11 percent each).

Any IT manager will refuse to move to a new system if it can’t deliver guarantees on response times and uptime. If these are the questions our readers are asking, then it seems the cloud is now a real option for them. Early last year it seemed you were still confused by it all.

There are still people for whom the whole idea of moving to the cloud is a no-no – nine percent of the votes said cloud is just “a bad idea”.

Below that, cost, corporate culture and application support each got eight percent of the votes

We expected many people to report that regulations prevented them from using the cloud, but that only scored five percent of the votes, just behind the “business parttners” – some of you can’t move till the people you work with have taken a step.

Finally, only four percent of you had other answers – this time round suggesting a reasonable objection we had omitted – privacy.

Next: what do you use your mobile for?

On eWEEK we obviously use mobiles for everything, and we have been told about a lot of apps, some good, some bad.

We want to know the basics of how you use your mobile devices. Do you do email on them? Do you read and research information?  Do you do mobile social media (research suggests the British are good at this)? Do you do e-commerce – buying and selling for your business? And do you have specific  business related apps, such as ERP and CRM that you access remotely?

While we are thinking of it, are any of you retro enough to use your mobile for phoning and texting?

As usual, let us know your answers – this time, once again, you can tick as many boxes as you like, and also add any options we’ve forgotten, in the “Other” field.