As the temperature continues to rise and flowers begin to bloom, companies small and large are continuing to embrace the cloud and all of the benefits it has to offer their organization at a rapid pace. With an ultra high level of efficiency, the ability to deploy services in a much shorter period of time and optimizing resources already in place, small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in particular are realizing that when transitioning to the cloud, they can access functions that were once unattainable due to expensive price tags.
In recent news within the cloud space, it was revealed that The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), a not-for-profit organization that was developed with the sole intention of compiling tips and best practices to heighten security within cloud computing, unveiled a new membership level that will closely assist SMBs moving to the cloud.
When commenting on the reasoning behind helping this group of firms, Daniele Catteddu, CSA managing director, said "Small businesses are the workhorses of a strong economy, yet they continue to be faced with a myriad of challenges such as access to funding, skilled labor and new affordable technologies. By educating and helping these businesses understand and apply best practices to cloud computing, we hope to give them the cost-effective competitive edge to create new opportunities and markets for their businesses."
Over the years, some businesses have been hesitant to leverage the cloud because they are afraid that confidential data and information housed via the Web will not remain fully secure. Yet in a piece featured on the Bloomberg (News - Alert) site, it was highlighted that even those who are fearful of the potential ramifications of a cyber attack are now realizing that they could actually be hurting their business by not utilizing the cloud and are making the shift primarily to cut costs.
And as for those concerns about security within cloud computing, there have yet to be any major incidents.
“I've been looking for it, but I can't find any real evidence that the cloud is more risky than hosting everything completely internal," commented Wade Baker, managing principal of Verizon's (News - Alert) RISK group, a company dedicated to uncovering potential breaches. "I've studied a lot of breaches; we get a lot of information from a lot of different organizations, and it doesn't seem to be there."
As the cloud business industry continues to expand with analyst firm Gartner (News - Alert) predicting that the space will grow by nearly 18.5 percent to $130.7 billion throughout the globe just this year, it is likely that those who haven’t yet migrated to the cloud will do so as way to keep their competitive edge as well as drive their bottom line.
Peter Bernstein, senior editor at TMCnet concluded, “There are a lot of what can best be called misperceptions about the perceived risks of moving to the cloud, and the Cloud Security Alliance deserves credit for helping SMBs realize that taking a common sense approach and employing best practices means security does not have to be an obstacle that prevents SMBs for leveraging all the cloud has to offer them.”
Edited by Blaise McNamee