Financial firms are slowly but surely getting to grips with the cloud, according to a new Cloud Security Alliance survey.
The survey, sponsored by CipherCloud, revealed that 61 percent of financial institutions are developing a cloud strategy within their organisation.
Additionally, between 39 and 47 percent of respondents planned to use a mixture of in-house, IT, private and public clouds, while 18 percent planned to use private clouds.
The survey also revealed that small firms with under 500 employees and large firms with over 5000 employees had the highest adoption rates for the cloud, with figures of 40 and 35 percent respectively. By contrast, for companies of between 501 and 5000 employees the figure was 18 percent.
The research also revealed the priorities of financial executives when moving to cloud; 80 percent of respondents reported desiring "increased transparency and better auditing controls", while 57 percent wished for better data encryption tools.
Jim Reavis, CEO of the CSA, commented: "The results of this report are insightful into understanding how the financial services industry is progressing in terms of cloud adoption and how cloud providers can best serve their interests and needs."
He added: "We hope that cloud providers and financial institutions can use this as guidance to help accelerate the adoption of secure cloud services in the financial industry."
"The responses overall showed a very active market for cloud services in the financial services sector," said Dr. Chenxi Wang, Vice President, Cloud Security and Strategy, CipherCloud. "Cloud has made solid in-roads in this industry with many firms looking to harnessing the power of cloud.
"There’s plenty of room for growth, particularly for providers who can fill the void for the auditing and data protection controls that are at the top of respondents’ cloud wish list."
The survey attracted 102 executives from banking, insurance and investment firms in 20 different countries around the world.
