Cloud Computing: CSO’s – Are You a Groundhog or a Giraffe?

Grazed from Sys Con Media.  Author: Steve Pate.

Through a great deal of research on enterprise cloud adoption and security, I’ve learned something telling. As you would expect, CISOs’ opinions about cloud strategy are quite varied. While many folks recognize their company’s use of SaaS for HR, sales, communication, and other applications, they are fairly divided about the use of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and how secure these environments are in keeping company data safeguarded. After many talks with these technology leaders, I’ve determined that each fall into three distinct categories.

The "Server Huggers"
The first group is the server huggers and they make up a very small percentage of the respondents. They simply have no reason to leverage IaaS. Their applications are very resource intensive and expensive, and their businesses are highly predictable, so the need for scalable capacity just doesn’t exist. However, the time may come where they have company needs to bring the cloud into the mix. If so, they should be well informed on how to take advantage of cloud services and realize the ways to protect data during and after that migration…

The Groundhogs
These guys burrow into the ground and resist the changes taking place on the surface. The majority of CSOs take this stance that the cloud is inherently insecure, and their general reaction is: "I’m not putting my data up there!" Despite all the benefits and the huge number of reports available today, they remain hesitant. The reality is that they know the business units are doing it, especially for temporary projects or for collaboration and file sharing. The obvious challenge to the CSO is that it’s hard enough to secure networks you know… much less those that you don’t. Thus, means must be put in place to keep a close eye on keys and monitor where the data resides and who has access. Those factors alone establish peace of mind and ease the uncertainly during the transition…

Read more from the source @  http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/2635974