'Security key to cloud adoption'

BANGALORE, INDIA: Indian Enterprises can be far ahead of developed countries in adopting cloud services. However, the security of data on cloud is still a matter of concern that needs to be addresses by the industry, opined experts at the two-day NASCOM Infrastructure Management Service Summit 2010 which began here on Wednesday.

Enterprises in Indian have the potential to go ahead of US companies in adopting the cloud services. But, one of the concerns of CIOs today is on the security aspect as cloud service providers differ in compliance on security, observed Akash Saxena, executive, IS India/ South Asia, IBM India, addressing a session on 'Disruptive Trends in infrastructure Technology'.

He said not only the enterprises but also the various Government departments in India were keen on adopting cloud services. "There major concern is security as the data need to be shared with a third party."

Elaborating on the other key challenges, he said, delivery and compliance were other key issues facing the enterprises. As the infrastructure will lie with third parties  there is still question mark on the timely delivery aspect, Sazena added.

Saxena observed that in last five years there has been a vast change in the way we consume IT. Cloud services have been popular in India as its brings agility and sophistication in operations. The cloud is one of the most disruptive technologies as it shrinks the time consumed in offices drastically.

Also read: Security Trends 2010

Further, Cloud has brought great mobility to not only the individual users but also companies. "Networking sites are in fact becoming new platforms for companies to reach out to customers. This medium is getting popular as they can be faster compared to email  communication." he added.

Amit Chatterjee, MD, India & SAARC, CA Technologies opined that the service management is going to be the critical aspect in cloud environment.

The cloud environment brings in several challenges to business environment most of them concerning to delivery.

Deepak Shagrithaya, Director, Enterprise Technology, India, Microsoft was of the view that that disruption is not always by the IT infrastructure but by the way IT will be used.