The Cloud Industry Forum (CIF), the industry body formed to promote trustworthy practice within the cloud computing sector, today commented on businesses' reluctance to invest in cloud-based services. Recent findings from research firm the Ponemon Institute claims 68 per cent of polled IT professionals in the U.S and Europe, believe it's too risky to store financial information and intellectual property outside of the company's data centre.

The chairman of the CIF group and Fasthosts CEO, Andy Burton, commented: "It doesn't surprise me that once again we are faced with evidence of end-users' uncertainty and lack of trust in cloud based solutions, particularly where financial and personal data are concerned. We see that there are three main barriers to adoption centred around concerns over security of solutions, interoperability between vendors, and confidence or trust in the cloud service provider. Understandably, organisations want confidence in the protection of important data."

"For a lot of businesses, investing in the cloud is unfortunately and incorrectly seen as investing in the 'unknown', despite the significant commercial and operational advantages it can afford. The industry needs to be more transparent to engender the trust required by businesses wishing to adopt their services. CIF is currently implementing an industry Code of Practice to enable end users to make an informed decision about the service provider. In essence this Code of Practice will enable them to demonstrate their capability, resources and structure, and will provide users with a basis of rational comparison and assessment."

"Although the research is from Europe and the US, with more than half of the participants saying they were unaware of all the cloud-based services deployed in their organisation, the statistic is consistent with recent trends in the UK. Evidently across the northern hemisphere, there is a lack of communication in organisations when it comes to cloud services. Businesses should inform employees about their policy on the use of cloud based services and identify who is responsible for ensuring cloud services are adopted appropriately within their organisation. As organisations begin to realise that cloud services can offer the same levels of security as those in physical environments, eventually we can expect more wide spread adoption. We are confident the Code of Practice will assist this process," concluded Andy.