A survey of UK users found 61% see security as a major cloud issue, followed by data privacy (54%) and data sovereignty (28%, despite 2% of reporting a cloud data breach.
Back up and disaster recovery turned out to be the applications with highest threat felt by organisations, followed by personnel and payroll and data storage.
88% of organisations are worried about their data in the cloud, while 44% of them have modified their way of using cloud in the wake of the PRISM disclosures, with 9% have completely changed their content security (CSP).
Alex Hilton, Cloud Industry Forum CEO, said: "Despite the significant growth in adoption and penetration of Cloud services, it’s clear from the research that the market remains somewhat confused and uncertain as to the legal, regulatory and security environment surrounding the market.
"This is arguably driven by the continued FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) being peddled in the media following recent developments in European Data Protection and the revelations about PRISM."
Security was the major reason cited by survey respondents not willing to shift their applications to the cloud, the report noted.
CIF suggests firms that are careful about their Cloud adoption can implement Hybrid Cloud that integrates both technology requirements and mandatory regulatory needs.
Hilton added: "Hybrid Cloud enables organisations to combine the best of both worlds to fit both their technology needs together with mandatory regulatory requirements.
"This will also help them manage data concerns.
"Businesses are right to be concerned about their data, but this applies as much to Cloud environments as to on-premise."
