Cloud security firm Netskope, through a Ponemon Institute commissioned study, has released the results of its survey of over 1,000 IT professionals in Europe, and the findings portray some sobering news for proponents of public cloud computing. The survey results cover views on securing cloud based applications and how secure those applications and the data really are. The summary for MSPs is that European IT professionals do not believe public cloud is secure enough for their needs.
Cloud Survey Results
64% of IT professionals believe their organization's use of cloud computing services reduces their ability to protect important data. This is not a very promising statistic for MSPs hoping to sell customers on the security and privacy of their data while in the cloud.
However, the more problematic responses focus directly on the service providers.
77% of the respondents said they thought their cloud service provider would not alert them immediately after a breach of customer data. 84% of the survey participants stated that they doubted their provider would tell them if sensitive intellectual property was exposed. And finally, 72% said they don’t trust their service provider to obey data protection laws and regulations. This is not good! More importantly, it is an issue that we as a professional community must address.
MSPs Must Address Public Cloud Computing Concerns
The fact that these IT professionals are in Europe may explain some of the results from the is survey. Public debate over Edward Snowden's revelations about data privacy and security and the US government have obviously had an impact on European IT professionals. However, just as the outsourcing movement back in the early 2000s confused offshoring with managed services, today we have a similar educational issue to resolve before it becomes a crisis.
What IT professionals legitimately feel can be mitigated by private cloud. Underlying this survey appears to be both sentiments about data private and security, as well as how the cloud service provider will behave in the event of a data breach. MSPs cannot allow these beliefs to go unanswered!
Transparency through certification
For the last decade, the MSPAlliance has been working diligently on the issue of transparency. Our belief is that through transparency MSPs can show their customers how they protect their information and ease the minds of potential clients. Lack of transparency is precisely the cause for 77% of IT professionals to question whether their MSP would let them know about a data breach.
