CONCERNS on security, the perception that the staff is unprepared to  move to the cloud, lack of preparation and the high expectations of organizations which have gone to cloud are major concerns of the enterprises that want to migrate to cloud computing, according to the 2011 State of Cloud Survey.

“There are certainly concerns for organizations in moving to the cloud. The top concern of organizations in the Philippines is ensuring security in the cloud environment. They are concerned about a myriad of potential risks, including malware, hacker-based theft, data leakage and so on. In fact, according to 2011 State of Cloud Survey, when asked to list their biggest concerns, the real finding was not which fears topped the list, but that so many fears made the list,” said Symantec senior country manager Luichi Robles in a recent e-mail interview with the BusinessMirror. 

Robles also said many organizations believe their information technology (IT) staff is not fully equipped to handle the challenges in moving to the cloud. Being a new field in the IT industry, Robles said it is expected there are few computing professionals who have the knowledge on cloud services.  

While there is a high interest to tap the cloud, Robles said the lack of knowledge has become a deterrent in which few organizations “have crossed the finish line.”

As far as organizations that have completed the move to cloud are concerned, Robles said there is a “striking gap between the goals they expected to achieve and what they actually achieved.”

He said the big reason why Philippine organizations are reluctant to move to the cloud is the lack of skills of the staff.  He said more than half of the organizations in the Philippines surveyed said their computing staff is not ready for the move.

”Part of the reason for this hesitancy is their staff’s lack of experience. Less than one in four computer staffers have cloud experience.  As the adoption of cloud changes how IT works, so experience is absolutely crucial. So, clearly, organizations in the Philippines are crossing the cloud chasm with both anticipation and trepidation,” said Robles. 

Making the problem a bit complicated in the Philippines is the lackadaisical performance of organizations that have implemented cloud technologies. He said there are significant gaps between what organizations are expecting to achieve and what they actually achieved.

For example, 82 percent of Philippine respondents in the 2011 State of Security Survey expected the cloud to improve their IT agility, yet only 51 percent found it actually did. The same is true for disaster recovery, efficiency, lowered operational expenses and improved security. 

“These gaps are indicative of the immaturity of the market. Cloud vendors and solutions are still evolving and promises may be outrunning reality at this stage,” said Robles.

He added that Philippine organizations should learn the best practices when moving to the cloud. When moving to the cloud, Robles said there must an active leadership from the IT sector of an organization.