Companies undeterred by their cloud data security woes

Any good relationship is built on trust, but for some businesses and cloud, that is still an issue. With many businesses still having concerns about cloud data security, you'd think that they would be least likely to store important data in the cloud. According to a Ponemon Institute LLC study focused on cloud security, however, that is not the case. The study shows that 66% of businesses that are focused on cloud security put sensitive information in the cloud, while only 40% of the businesses considered to be less concerned with security do the same.

David Linthicum sits down with Krishnan Subramanian, director of OpenShift Strategy at Raleigh, North-Carolina-based Red Hat Inc., to discuss a number of cloud security issues. The topics on Linthicum's agenda include the aforementioned trends in cloud security, security's impact, what needs to be done to ease concerns, how the government is using cloud and what's new at Red Hat. Specific questions include:

1. Why are people so concerned about cloud data security? More importantly, why are people who are concerned about security more likely to store sensitive data in the cloud? Subramanian thinks that cloud may not be as unsecure as it seems; a lot of the concern regarding cloud security is due to "misinformation spread by some of the traditional companies." Linthicum discusses whether technology capable of securing the cloud is available and what goes into maintaining security over time.

2. Can having a plan for cloud security help decrease the risks involved? Is it possible to have a completely secure environment? Can hackers attack the cloud? Linthicum believes that hacking into the cloud is eventually going to happen, but will it be like the disaster at Target? Are people concerned about the wrong issues with cloud? Is security secondary to cloud compliance and ownership issues? How do companies implement best practices to limit problems?