Companies must consider the security risks before they rush headlong into putting applications into the cloud, warns Bjarne Rasmussen, CTO & senior vice president at CA Europe.
“Companies who decide to use the cloud have to be worried – it’s a real issue,” Rasmussen told CBR. “It’s been put on one side because of the general movement towards the cloud and because of the flexibility it brings. But now professional organisations are saying, we understand all the benefits, but we can’t do it because the risks are too high.”
Rasmussen called for cloud providers to step up to the plate and prove their security credentials, providing guarantees to customers on data security and performance in the same was that outsourcers do.
“It’s no different at all from outsourcing. So you need an agreement with your company about what they are doing to protect your data and applications. Security is not only about data but performance. You have to know that your application is going to be available when you need it and at the performance you need. You also have to know that your data will not be visible to anyone else in the cloud environment and that you have the same level of security as if you’d run it in-house,” said Rasmussen.
Cloud providers that make security a priority will reap rewards. “I think those cloud providers that step up to the mark will gain competitive advantage and can leapfrog competitors in the market,” noted Rasmussen.
Despite security concerns, Rasmussen sees a future where many applications will be in the cloud.
“When I look at small companies of up to 250 employees, I don’t think they will even have any computers, but simply a network supplier and they will run applications from different providers in the cloud,” he said.
CA’s role is to work with the cloud providers on areas such as access management. It is also working with large companies to ensure that only authorised applications are put into the cloud.
