A new research from IT Governance Institute (ITGI) has revealed that the companies are holding back their investments on cloud computing over fears for the security of their data.
Half of the 834 executives from 21 countries polled said they are delaying cloud implementation in light of security concerns, and over a third are waiting until they get the full value from installed systems. Respondents who do not plan to use cloud computing at all in the near future list security (47%) and privacy concerns (50%), followed closely by legacy infrastructure investments (35%), as barriers to adoption.
However, the survey also found that of the executives who use or plan to use cloud computing for IT services, 60% was non-mission critical and 40% would also trust the cloud for mission-critical IT services. Organizations are also actively employing outsourcing, with 93% fully or partially outsourcing some of their IT activities. Case management software for the legal industry is starting to become more prevalent (as are many other types of software that are geared specifically towards an industry) so cloud services are no longer only used for IT.
The survey found outsourcing is highly prevalent across the board, but especially in larger enterprises and those where IT is considered important or very important to the delivery of the business strategy or vision.
Ken Van der Wal, international vice-president at Isaca, said emerging technologies such as cloud computing and outsourcing can be managed effectively by integrating good governance over IT.
“Organisations need to adopt new service delivery models to stay competitive, and this is fuelling a strong commitment to enterprise IT governance across the C-suite,” he said.
According to Van der Wal, assessing the value of current investments, building consensus among stakeholders and mitigating risk with third-party providers require a comprehensive governance framework for organisations.
95% of the executives also acknowledged governance of enterprise IT as important. This reveals an almost universally shared perception of IT as a critical contributor to overall business strategy, no matter where the organisation is on the path of GEIT maturity, Isaca said.
