Ironically, a prominent reason many small and medium-sized business are joining the cloud is the same reason many are hesitant to: security. A common myth is that as a company transitions to a cloud solution, they take a hit in the security of their data assets. In fact, the opposite is true. It’s a simple economies of scale argument: a specialized IT provider has more resources to devote to security than a small business. Instead of a single IT guy/Jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none, your business receives a team of masters.
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September article in the Wall Street Journal points to other reasons for the transition. “Basic security tasks that often don't get done at a small enterprise—updating antivirus programs or applying patches to software—are usually part of the plain-vanilla package in the cloud.”
In a stronger tone, Jim Reavis of Cloud Security Alliance says, “"Small and medium businesses are insane not to leverage the advantages of cloud computing. It ends up being almost in all cases a security upgrade because they can't otherwise afford the practices."
In an article at
Technology Review, Jeremiah Grossman, founder of WhiteHat Security says, “such [cloud computing security] fears are misplaced. A bank isn't in the business of technology. A retailer isn't in the business of managing IT infrastructure. A service provider like an Amazon, they have very particular skills [at] making really secure infrastructures. What you get from a cloud provider is economies of scale—and somebody else to manage the problem.“
Still, security remains a chief hurdle in execs’ minds. What will it take for people to make the transition? For Blake Brown, Rackspace cloud customer says, “Pain…when a shark gets through and disrupts the business.” Fortunately, that isn’t the case for many forward-thinking business leaders, and it doesn’t have to be the case for you.