Cloud Security is one element that perhaps “clouds” the outlook for cloud computing more than any other.  “That’s one of the major issues holding back adoption of shared public clouds by enterprises and by the federal government,” said Jonathan Nguyen-Duy, director of security product management at Verizon Business, which provides cloud computing services.

Even private clouds requires extra security, says Christofer Hoff, director of cloud and virtualization solutions at Cisco Systems (CSCO).

“But in a public cloud, the challenges are a little more interesting,” he said, since customers have to rely on the security provided by the public cloud providers. “You’re talking about a multitenant environment with the potential to be co-located next to a competitor or attacker.”

He says while large companies are putting some nonregulated and less sensitive parts of their business into public clouds, many are not turning to the public cloud “for mission-critical or heavily regulated data.”

27% Annual Growth Forecast

• The global public cloud market will be worth $55.5 billion in 2014, research firm IDC says.
• It’s seen rising at a compound annual growth rate of 27% from 2009 till then.
• But 40% to half of large companies “are first building their own private clouds,” said Gartner analyst John Pescatore, an analyst with research firm Gartner.
• He says fewer than 10% are using full public cloud services.

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