Security issues that impede cloud adoption

Cloud encryption vendor CipherCloud polled attendees at the recent Dreamforce event in San Francisco about things that keep them from full-on cloud implementation. I’m usually reluctant to run vendor-backed surveys because I’m convinced they are all skewed in ways that keep us from the full truth about the topic at hand. But I also think some survey results make for interesting, for-what-it’s-worth discussion points in our community.

It’s in the latter spirit that I share the following, which CipherCloud’s PR person emailed me this morning:

Some 50 IT professionals were polled for this survey.

In considering storing sensitive data in the cloud, the respondents, which were IT professionals with in-depth experience in cloud implementations, indicated concern over these issues:

 — Data security –  66%

 — Data privacy – 56%

 — Compliance – 34%

 — Data residency – 26%

The poll also showed a high percentage of respondents were also concerned with other specific cloud threats:

 — Data leakage – 52%

— Unknown risk profiles – 34%

 — Account, service, and traffic hijacking – 32%

 — Shared technology vulnerabilities – 32%

 — Malicious insiders at cloud providers – 28%

 — Insecure programming interfaces – 24%

Any thoughts, readers? If so, share away.