Security of staff data is biggest concern for cloud users, study finds

Cloud Industry Forum research shows most of cloud users are happy with the service they're getting

Businesses are more concerned about the confidentiality of employee data in the cloud than customer data, according to new research.

Only 23 per cent of businesses said that they would not trust the cloud to host their client and third-party data, in a survey by the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF).

The same survey revealed that employee data is the data that businesses are most reluctant to move to a hosted service, with 54 per cent saying that they would not move it to the cloud, while 52 per cent said they would not move accounts and finanancial data to the cloud.

"When you look at the data that people are least comfortable putting in the cloud, the number one thing is employee data," said Andy Burton, chairman of the CIF.

"This is quite interesting in light of the Data Protection Act. You would expect these concerns to be in the reverse order."

Meanwhile, 94 per cent of businesses that have moved to the cloud said they were happy with the services they have received, and 85 per cent said that they will increase use of cloud services this year.