Government IT managers suffer Cloud concerns

David Bicknell

4 months ago 0 Comments

IT managers working in government in the US are being urged to adopt Cloud computing as their first choice for federal computer systems. But a new survey has suggested that concerns over security and a lack of clarity over cost savings means those managers are reluctant to jump into the Cloud until they are ready.

Initiatives from the Office of Management and Budget such as 'Cloud First' have encouraged those responsible for managing IT systems to move three services to the Cloud over 18 months in a bid to reduce costs and increase flexibility.

Yet according to the survey by the Ponemon Institute research group, although 91% of federal IT workers are familiar with the Office of Management and Budget's Cloud First initiative, 69% believe that the plan to move the three services to the Cloud is too fast. 71% went further and said that government pressure to move to the Cloud is actually creating security risks for their organisations.

The survey indicated that 54% of federal IT workers are not confident about their Cloud service providers' ability to provide sufficient data protection and security, and many believe their agency, instead of providers, should ultimately be most responsible for Cloud security.

The problem for those moving services to the Cloud is that for many businesses or government systems, although in theory service providers should have higher service standards and greater service flexibility - they are, after all providing a service based around the data they are hosting in the Cloud - managers remain suspicious that the service levels offered by a vendor will not match those that the user can achieve with their own on-premise systems. 

They also remain wary of putting data into the Cloud, although there is an argument that says if it is government data being put into the Cloud, that may be less of a concern than private sector corporate data being put there, where the loss of that data could potentially put a company's survival at risk. 

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