Lack of Security Features Hampers Cloud Computing Adoption in Indian Enterprises

Cloud Computing has come a long way globally and in India as well. I remember I was sceptical of cloud technology in India and not even 2 years since then, Cloud based technologies are taking off both at consumer level and even at enterprise level. Even though there are lot of cloud based solutions/services, Amazon’s AWS is something that is being used extensively across the globe and in India as well.

Cloud Solutions by design are meant primarily for small and medium enterprises. Subscription based pricing, on-demand scalability are some of the features which allow small enterprises to avail the benefits of a enterprise class solution without actually incurring upfront costs for the same.

So, even though a lot of SMEs are using cloud solutions in one or the way another it came as a surprise when a survey conducted by Trend Micro revelead that majority of Indian enterprises are wary of implementing a cloud based solution,

55 per cent enterprise IT decision-makers in India reported a security lapse or a concern about their cloud provider in the last 12 months

Even as enterprises in India are aware of the benefits cloud based solutions can offer and intend to adopt them in the near future, lack of security around cloud based solutions is holding them back. Additionally, billing and tracking of services used, lack of access to data and lack of transparency were some other barriers for cloud adoption among Indian Enterprises.

What comes as a surprise is that the target customer base for cloud solutions itself is wary of adopting cloud solutions? Even though a survey might not be the best way to judge the adoption of cloud among enterprises, security has been a teething problem for enterprises looking to adopt cloud based solutions. Apparently, cloud solution providers are not bundling enough security features to ensure that the systems have high security levels. With data access over internet being a key component of cloud technology, security becomes a bigger beast to tame when compared to in-premise systems where the IT buyers atleast know that the system storing their data lies physically with them.

Security is almost a commonality when it comes to adoption of cloud based solutions. I wonder if it will be the cloud based solution providers who will beef the security features or will specialized security solution providers like Norton etc. will develop plug-and-play cloud based security solutions.

One thing is sure, If you are an entrepreneur building cloud based solutions leave out security features at your own peril!

What are your thoughts on Cloud solutions lacking the right security features? The widespread hacking attempts are only going to increase the skepticsm of enterprises to move the cloud based solutions should the security features are not beefed up