Over five in six (83%) organisations using the cloud prioritise a high level of security when looking for a cloud solution, according to a new report.
The study from Ingram Micro Cloud surveyed 250 UK-based cloud end users from a variety of mid-market and enterprise organisations, and across a range of key sectors.
According to the survey, other aspects that are important to end user businesses include competitive pricing (74%), scalability (68%) and the capacity to back up and archive (52%).
Despite the security risks and challenges, cloud adoption continues at a rapid pace, with total worldwide public cloud services market revenue expected to have hit $260.2 billion in 2017, according to Gartner an increase of 18.5% year-on-year.
Ingram Micro's findings will come as no surprise following a year where top organisations have suffered serious data breaches and security incidents, and are looking to shore up against future instances.
With cloud security, the boundary for the system is no longer the edge of the physical network, but the individuals who use it. This means security measures have to focus on protecting applications, data and identity instead of simply guarding entrances and exits to the network.
The survey also revealed there are opportunities for resellers to offer additional security services as part of a managed cloud services offering, with 52% of them seeing additional security services as a necessary part of strengthening their customer relationships.
Ensuring cloud security is also vital for companies ahead of incoming GDPR regulations as a part of what any organisation storing personal data of EU citizens has to have in place by May.
These regulations are forcing companies and cloud third parties into a shared responsibility model. For cloud vendors, the main responsibility is to protect their infrastructure and applications so customers can use them without worrying about security flaws. But the responsibility for protecting data stored on that infrastructure, from the operating system to the applications, is down to the individual organisation.
