As more companies in Asia Pacific begin to explore or tap on the benefits of cloud computing, security remains a common concern among enterprises, especially in highly regulated industries such financial services, insurance and healthcare.
But for regulators in several countries including Australia, “where there were specific references to the cloud maybe four or five years ago, those references are now gone,” said John Brand, Forrester’s vice president and principal analyst.
“The references are now back around privacy and security of data and not whether it’s cloud or not. It’s meeting the requirements for privacy and security of that data, understanding that you have control of that data and therefore, you have the responsibility for that data. How that is achieved is kind of up to [the organization].”
So, enterprises have to recognize that what really matters is not where the data resides but how the data is controlled. “I expect to see that evolve quite quickly,” Brand said. “What we haven’t had in the past is the cloud providers really mature enough to be able to guarantee those levels of security anyway. Even now, we see a complex supply chain of data center technologies. The fact that there is a data center operator doesn't mean there is a data center or facilities owner. In terms of ensuring physical security as well as virtual security, it’s still fairly complex.”
“Security is the ultimate last battlefield,” said Brand, who recently presented a study on adoption of emerging technologies in Singapore commissioned by ICT service provider and SingTel subsidiary NCS. The study polled 221 IT and business decision makers and found that only 9% of respondents plan to adopt big data in 2013 and a majority of companies cite security concerns (50%) as an obstacle to adopting machine-to-machine technologies.