There has been an increase in the number of companies believing that cost savings with the adoption of cloud computing outweighs the security aspect, according to a study by nCircle, a provider of automated security and compliance auditing offering.
The study, nCircle 2011 Information Cloud Computing Study, revelaed that only 32% of companies believe the cost savings associated with cloud computing outweigh security considerations for their organisation, up from 26% in 2010.
The study surveyed 551 respondents in the IT security industry, including senior management, IT operations, security professionals and risk and audit managers.
The nCirlce study said 69% of respondents would be more likely to consider cloud vendors that are PCI or FISMA compliant, compared with 63% in 2010.
There has been a marginal increase in the number of companies planning to opt cloud computing in 2011, with 69% of companies are considering cloud computing, up from 66% in 2010.
nCircle CTO Tim Keanini said these results are a clear indication that there is demand for specific and tangible assurance of security and compliance measures from cloud vendors.
"IT security professionals know that cloud vendors currently produce very little evidence of their internal security and compliance processes and do not allow their customers to conduct their own security and compliance audits," Keanini said.
