ISACA, the Information Systems Audit and Control Association just surveyed 1 529 of its members across 50 countries in EMEA.

It turns out that UK businesses are leading Europe on Cloud Adoption 40% to 33%. But a whopping 35% of respondents do not plan to use Cloud for any IT services (actually 35.6% in Europe and 31.8% in the UK). This is a huge impediment to the growth of ItaaS – IT as a Service, such as SaaS, IaaS and PaaS respectively Software as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as a Service.

Let’s spin this another way: 60% of respondents are not using Cloud yet, and of these more than half do not plan to use it at all.

Why is that?  How come despite all the benefits around Clouds, so many are not planning on leveraging this approach to IT? The survey doesn’t provide answers.  But it gives interesting clues concerning the role of underlying Risk Management approaches.  The more respondents have a formal Risk Management process, and the more they adopt Clouds.

Paul Williams, ISACA Strategy Chair was quoted as saying, "Every day we take calculated risks. Organisations need an integrated risk management approach to identify, assess and prioritise risks, so that they only take appropriate gambles with acceptable consequences or level of reward.”

Having a Risk Management and knowingly managing risk allows businesses to take the guesswork and the affect out of the security equation by providing visibility into the risks and the rewards of using Clouds. It's all about visibility.

Visibility is the enabler that permits businesses to make informed decisions.

There will always be inherent risk in using Clouds, just listen to the nay-sayers and they’ll give you a handful and mouthful of reasons why you shouldn’t use Clouds. But that’s true from any technologies; phones, cars, gas stoves… all we need is visibility to make informed decisions.

Visibility inside the Cloud would help take rate as well, and would make people feel more warm and fuzzy about using ItaaS, demystifying this new technology.

So how could Clouds provide visibility in their inner working without disclosing confidential information and exposing trade secrets? How could Cloud providers convince those 60% of respondents not yet using Clouds, and especially those 35% not planning to use Clouds, that it’s safe for them to use this emerging technology?

We’re providing answers; it’s called Log Management, check it out !

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