Security Holding up Cloud Adoption

The recently announced second annual Mimecast Cloud Barometer Survey, conducted by Loudhouse Research, finds that 74 percent of IT departments surveyed point to the trade-off between cost and IT security, and 62 percent indicate a risk in storing data on servers outside the business. For Canadian companies, the situation is complicated by the US Patriot Act. Most Cloud providers are US based, and many hold their data on servers in the US, which gives the authorities access to it under that act. There are concerns that this violates the provisions of the Canadian Privacy Act (PIPEDA). In any event it adds to the risk for Canadian companies and has contributed to slow cloud adoption, particular in the BI area.