A survey conducted by Symantec revealed that 83% of respondents in SA are confident that moving to the cloud will have either little impact on, or will actually improve, their security.
Since businesses have started adopting storage in the cloud, the question of security has been top-of-mind for both small and large enterprises.
The survey also revealed that, despite a great deal of consideration, many organisations are not ready to adopt cloud due to lack of experience among IT staff.
Furthermore, only 25% of IT teams have cloud experience and a minority (between 8% and 15%) rated their staff as extremely prepared for the transition to cloud.
"Symantec has extended cloud in SA and has invested in the continent; looking at the market trends, we're confident it is the right decision to make," said Symantec storage and availability specialist, Marc Dijkstra.
Speaking at a roundtable, Mark Smissen, business development manager for Symantec.cloud, said that since cloud is a relatively new term in the industry, most businesses were not aware of its services.
"For many businesses, the issue with cloud is the skills needed to implement it. Tech teams do everything from mail security to archiving, which is a chore, particularly with larger organisations," he explained.
Despite the disheartening results received from the survey, Smissen enthused about the future of cloud in SA and its adoption.
"The cloud landscape is rapidly changing; businesses understand the benefits of cloud solutions and are willing to adopt them, but adoption rates are still slow due to barriers such as accessibility and connectivity, and we anticipate that, by being a service provider, we have assisted in eliminating those concerns," he added.
Symantec claims it can make cloud 80% more secure against spam and phishing.
"Through scanned mail, we can block virus writers and we guarantee you will not get hit by an attack," Dijkstra assured.
"Consumers can now have access to cloud without having to pay unfair premiums to access the service, and as bandwidth improves in SA and more users gain access, we can build trust and grow the customer base," adds Dijkstra.
"Symantec has the infrastructure to secure SMS and social networks. We can prevent data leakage through scanning outgoing information and block any platform harmful to the organisation," Smissen added.
Dijkstra warned of the dangers of cyber criminals to an unprotected business.
"A simple key-logger is worth an enormous amount of money on the black market. According to Symantec's global intelligence research, done in September, of the mail that was exchanged between employees and organisations, 75% of it was spam," he said.
"An attack could have the dire consequence of the company's sensitive information being exposed, and this may damage the reputation of the business or wipe out great amounts of important data," he continued.
"I would advise that business recognise that attacks happen on a daily basis - it could be any organisation targeted - recognise that parameters may not work, especially with the rise of BYOD, and most importantly, structures are needed on how to protect the business from being an unfortunate target," he concluded.
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