A recent article written by Bill Brenner, senior editor at CSO Magazine, reveals that companies are still a bit scared of putting critical data in the cloud. Results from the 8th Annual Global Information Security Survey conducted by CSO, along with CIO and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, cites: 62% of companies have little to no confidence in their ability to secure any assets put in the cloud. Also, of the 49% of respondents who have ventured into cloud computing, 39% have major qualms about security.
Not only is this a very insightful story, it also backs up what our Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Greg Shapiro, pointed out in the white paper – Moving to the Cloud: Important Things to Consider before Migrating your Messaging Infrastructure to the Cloud, as well as his recent eWeek contributed piece, How to Move Your Messaging Infrastructure to the Cloud. What’s common between Greg’s articles and evidence pointed out in the CSO Magazine story is that security (or lack thereof) seems to be the most important element when considering a move to the cloud. From an email perspective there are many concerns around security including the level of encryption the cloud provider offers (see Greg Olsen’s recent blog post on this topic), how email messages are archived, and even how personnel data can be compromised by making LDAP information available to the cloud provider for improved spam handling and policy enforcement.
Sendmail recommends that all enterprises looking to move any part of their messaging infrastructure to the cloud first conduct a thorough Messaging Architecture Review.
We’re always open to your thoughts and opinions. Take a look at the links provided and let us know what do you think.