Cloud computing has turned out to be one of the biggest boons for businesses, particularly small to midsize businesses. This is because they benefit from eradicating the need to deploy physical infrastructure such as email and file servers, shrink-wrap software or storage systems. Employees and business partners can collaborate in a hassle-free way anytime, anywhere with the help of the ubiquitous browser.
A recent study that was focused on the awareness of IT experts about cloud applications showed that several of them just didn’t even know how many cloud applications they are actually running. And, that’s just the beginning, because the shocking fact was that a big chunk of the participants didn’t even know about the security threats that third-party apps can cause.
Underrating the Cloud Apps
The survey results showed that more than half of the IT and security experts thought that they had fewer than ten cloud oriented apps running, and almost 90% of them believed fewer than 50 apps were running. Though, these percentages are not in line with the several industry figures, the reports indicate that over 500 cloud applications are used by a midsize company on an average.
Lack of Awareness
If this lack of awareness continues, security issues can pop up. The report showed that unsecured cloud apps are open to susceptibilities, and this may lead to easy compromise of data. Almost 50% of the respondents in the survey reported that 5% of their sensitive cloud data had been shared with sources that were not authorized, and 25% of the IT experts were not sure if an infringement had occurred because of cloud applications within the previous one year. Such is the level of unawareness among the IT professionals, which in, turn calls for stringent policies governing the cloud apps.
Cloud Collaboration and Its Impact on Security
With cloud apps gaining more popularity among businesses, several midsize companies have started migrating many, if not all of their IT operations to the cloud. With the growing demand for simpler collaboration choices and increasing mobility, cloud-based apps have become a priority today. Since midsize businesses have limited staff and resources, IT experts in such companies are trying to find secure solutions that are also easy-to-use at reasonably affordable costs.
Since lack of awareness may cause a potential breach, it’s crucial for midsize companies to opt for an experienced cloud provider that can understand the needs of a growing business. Once this affiliation is done, IT experts can implement safe solutions, thus enhancing their productivity. Before opting for a platform, they need to thoroughly evaluate few aspects like compliance, security, cost, and administrative permissions.
Growth of Awareness
Few of the choices available for midsize companies for enhancing their productivity are public, private, and hybrid cloud computing solutions. The main features that they normally tend to look for in a good cloud solution are controlling IT, flexibility, and security. When they associated with experienced cloud providers, they can evaluate the right factors to guarantee proper implementation, thus assisting to increase the awareness of cloud apps in such firms.
You may also want to read this article that discusses the benefits of cloud computing for small businesses.