The public cloud has always had something of an image problem when it comes to security, being regarded as a less safe space to store sensitive data, but that appears to be changing.
The great cloud lure of increased agility and speed as the primary driver of increased cloud usage is still the top dog but another, almost equally as important, driver is security.
According to an MIT SMR Custom Studio report conducted on behalf of Google Cloud, “increased confidence in cloud security,” is nearly as important a driver of increased cloud usage as increased need for agility and speed.
Security, which has long been considered an inhibitor of cloud adoption, is now a driver of greater cloud consumption, signalling a shift in trust.
The shift is an understandable one given the number of high profile security breaches that firms have had, and the realisation from many that the breaches have not been of cloud vendors.
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The survey of more than 500 IT and business executives found that IT leaders have recognised there are aspects of public cloud than can enhance security.
Three out of four business and IT leaders said that they’ve become more confident in cloud security over the past two years. In the two years prior to the survey only 24% of workloads were being run in the public cloud, a figure expected to jump to 65% of workloads two years from now.
Agility (45%), and security (44%) were cited as the top reasons behind this expansion, with 34% citing cost savings.
Google, like all of the cloud players is investing in security with things like purpose-built hardware in its data centres, but given that security is still an issue for many looking to use public cloud services, results like may not be representative of the whole market.
