Data security remains a high concern among IT professionals. In fact, it’s the main barrier for adopting cloud services, according to a recent study by Evolve IP LLC.

According to Evolve IP’s Adoption of Cloud Services North America report, 55 percent of the 1,080 respondents said security was the biggest barrier and concern—a 2 percent increase over the previous year. And of the respondents who don’t have any services in the cloud, 70 percent said security was the biggest reason for not adopting cloud services.

Of those who have adopted cloud services, 52 percent they said their data would be most secure in a private cloud if there were a malicious attack. Thirty-eight percent said an on-premise data center would provide better protection, and 10 percent said a public cloud was safest. When asked where their data would be the safest during a hardware malfunction or environmental disaster, 55 percent said a private cloud, 27.5 percent said a public cloud and 17.5 percent said an on-premise data center.

This correlates with the type of cloud that organizations use. Five out of 10 respondents use or plan to use private clouds, while 40 percent said they will have hybrid environments and 32 percent said they will use private clouds.

Increased concern about compliance and the cloud

Other barriers to cloud adoption include compliance (40.5 percent) and privacy (38 percent), both of which increased over the previous year. Compliance, however, saw the biggest rise in concern—an 11 percent increase.

More people are concerned about compliance because failing to comply with standards such as PCI and HIPAA has financial repercussions, said Scott Kinka, CTO at Evolve IP. If data is moved to someone else’s storage, such as to a cloud provider, organizations can be penalized if that storage doesn’t comply with laws and regulations.

“Until recently, most compliance standards were just that: standards,” he said. “However, until there were penalties or requirements for continued business, they were largely treated as guidelines. Today, there is real money and a growing understanding associated with compliance.”

Concerns that cloud technology is immature and lacks functionality are all but gone. Only 12 percent said immature technology was a concern, and 17 percent said functionality was an issue.

Cloud reality matching expectations

For the first time in three years, the benefits and expectations of the cloud are aligned, Kinka said. Of those with services in the cloud, the top three expected benefits are scalability (85 percent), flexibility (75 percent) and lower total cost of ownership (72 percent). Looking at benefits realized, 64 percent said they’re achieving scalability, 62 percent said they have flexibility and about 50 percent said they achieved lower total cost of ownership.

This alignment is because the market has matured, Kinka said.

“Services and ROI have had time to bake, so to speak, which has helped promise and reality converge,” he said. “C-levels were early believers in the simplification, lower total cost of ownerships and business continuity cloud story. But IT managers needed time to prove solutions out.”

IT professionals and executives are also becoming more aligned in their belief in the cloud. Today, about 70 percent of both executives and IT managers and directors see the value of the cloud and consider themselves believers. In 2014, just 58.5% of IT managers considered themselves cloud believers.

“Over the last several years, the cloud has grown from a promising rookie to a high-performing, dependable pro that is embraced by the entire organization. With the promise of cost savings, disaster avoidance and recovery, and a flexible/scalable computing environment, the cloud has turned into quite the all-star,” authors of the report wrote.

Photo credit Yuri Samoilov via flickr