Migration to the cloud inevitable, study finds

Companies across industries are increasingly leveraging the cloud for security applications, with 42 percent of respondents in a new study commissioned by Schneider Electric indicating they currently run security applications in the cloud and almost half (45 percent) stating they are likely or extremely likely to transition security operations to the cloud in the future.

The survey, conducted by Morar Consulting, included input from more than 300 U.S. CIOs, CTOs, IT directors, security/facilities managers and operations personnel across industries including construction and trade, education, financial services, healthcare, IT/technology, manufacturing and industrial and professional and business services.

“Leveraging the cloud for security applications is becoming increasingly accepted—and required—as we move into a 24/7 digital world,” Steven Turney, security program manager, Schneider Electric, said in the announcement. “Especially for companies where security management improvements are imminent, it makes sense to consider innovation at every level of their organization to meet their security needs. As businesses are required to be more agile, the cloud helps to unify and simplify security measures so an organization's data, people and assets are constantly protected.”

According to the findings, organizations utilize the cloud for existing applications including data storage, human resources, email and security, and are eager to continue adopting it for security operations, with 57 percent of respondents believing the cloud is secure, including IT and technology professionals having the most confidence (78 percent), followed by education (70 percent), construction (68 percent) and financial services (52 percent). However, some skeptics remain, with 18 percent of respondents indicating they do not trust the cloud.

“Nearly three-fourths of respondents said network security is an important feature for security systems in their organizations,” the study's authors found. “While the state of security continues to advance, respondents indicate security systems aren't where they should be in order to adopt emerging technologies (54 percent), and despite business leaders being supportive of emerging technology (95 percent), many barriers to adoption exist.

Organizational/administrative barriers such as procedures, lack of perceived value and ROI were the top barriers identified that are inhibiting organizations from achieving their security goals, according to the study.

“While integration remains an obstacle to achieving security goals, almost 80 percent feel it is important to integrate security systems with other buildings and IT systems as part of an organization's cloud strategy,” the study found. “Currently, photo ID badging, active directory, intrusion and CCTV are the top four systems organizations integrate into their security systems. The two top non-security systems organizations currently integrate with their security systems are automation and lighting.”

To learn more about the study, you can review the full results here.

Note: SSN continues to report on this story, including an upcoming interview with Steven Turney, security program manager for Schneider Electric.