Most IT firms in the Asia South region had security as the top concern when moving over to cloud computing, according to 2011 State of Cloud Survey conducted by security and storage solutions firm Symantec Corporation. Many firms in the region were also not equipped to shift to cloud-based services as they were short of trained staff.

The study is based on 5,300 responses from 38 countries, of which 1,100 responses are from Asia South, including India, and the southeastern nations. The company, which features on the Fortune 500 list, generated $6.2 billion in FY2011 revenues.

“Most of the organizations in the Asia South region were concerned that cloud services bring their own risks such as malware attacks and data breach from unauthorized use of cloud-based systems,” said Anil Chakravarthy, senior vice-president, storage and availability management group, Symantec Corp. According to him, the only way to ensure success is when IT departments carefully select the applications that move to the cloud-based environment and closely monitor the security and cost of these services.

“Even though Europe and US are facing debt crisis and other issues, the companies are ready to invest in security solutions,” Symantec president CEO Enrique Salem said.

The survey said 84% of respondents are confident that moving to cloud will improve their security, but 52% said their IT staff was not ready. Part of the reason for the shortfall in readiness is lack of experience, because just 30% of IT teams have experience in cloud. Less than 15% companies reported having completed implementing each of the cloud focus areas covered by the survey.

The survey discovered that companies that have implemented cloud technologies are not getting results as they had anticipated. Only 45% of the respondents in the survey said that cloud computing eased their allocation of computing resources.

Symantec feels shifting focus is of prime importance to them now. The company believes it can no longer purely make money out of protecting devices. “Symantec is shifting its focus from device-centric protection to information and identification-centric firm,” said Art Gilliland, senior vice-president, information security group, Symantec Corp.

Protecting information and data in an extremely mobile environment is a challenge for security and storage solution firms. Cyber criminals are targeting technology like smart phones and tablet PCs.

Angela Tucci, chief strategy officer at Symantec Corp thinks spear phishing is a bigger threat. Spear phishing is where hackers target individuals through their information available online like on social media accounts. They target important executives who handle sensitive data.

Symantec hopes to increase its market in Asia Pacific region in the next five years from the new focus on information and identification. The firm’s 19% revenues currently come from that region.

(Source: The Financial Express)