Cloud security will be driven by policy and education, report says

The simplicity, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of cloud computing has caused it to become a favorite among corporate ITs. Some, however, are concerned about protecting data on the cloud and controlling employee use.

Nancy Gohring of PC World says such concerns can be addressed through education and establishing policies. “Creating an IT policy and then educating users about it are the first steps to preventing problems that could arise from employee use of cloud services,” she wrote.

In an interview with Gohring, Ian Gotta, CEO of Nimbus, said companies’ cloud policies should be planned well in advance to prevent problems arising from employees using cloud services. "One that says we won't have it happening isn't a policy," he said.

CIOs looking to improve their cloud computing policies have a number of cloud providers at their disposal who offer enterprise tools that allow them to control how employees use the services, Gohring writes.

While many enterprises are skeptical of public clouds, believing them to be unsafe, some experts believe the opposite is true. One analyst said public clouds have a security advantage because they must adhere to stricter security standards than private clouds.