The cloud market is currently in the early stages of adoption, characterized by both skepticism and euphoria among business and consumer users. While consumer adoption has led so far, driven by convenience over security, business adoption is more cautious but growing rapidly. In the near future, cloud computing will disrupt existing business models and democratize data access, fueled by big data. Adoption rates will continue increasing significantly as cloud becomes further ingrained, though challenges around data governance, security, and transparency remain.

1. Cloud market maturity—where are we and what does it mean to cloud users - ISACA Now Page 1 of 3
ISACA Now
10/8/2012
Cloud market maturity—where are we and what does it mean to cloud users
On 11, October 2012, ISACA hosts a free webinar titled Cloud
Market Maturity–Where Are We and What Does It Mean to Cloud
Users? Below is a Q&A with webinar co-presenter Bhavesh
Bhagat, president & CEO of EnCrisp LLC, which features some
of the topics explored.
ISACA: Where are we in terms of cloud market maturity?
Bhavesh: I would say we are in early stages of “skeptical
adoption and education.” Amongst B2B space and B2C space,
we are in a stage of “ignorant euphoria.” The reason I use these two buckets is
because both waves of cloud adoption fuel each other and both are, in a sense,
interdependent. B2C has been leading cloud adoption, but those consumers have
blissfully ignored and—in many cases—not cared seriously about the governance,
privacy and security concerns in a tradeoff for convenience. We all love using our “i-
devices and A-devices.” More needs to be done to educate even B2C cloud
users. B2B adoption has been more cautious—as it should be. The maturity curve is in
its infancy, but the unmistaken trend is to increase usage. Look at any major analytics
firm’s numbers for cloud usage and it shows explosive growth in the next decade. This
trend will be here to stay and will be validated despite the concerns of security and
privacy, as these will be worked out and global standards will be established in a
structured fashion in coming years. Both ISACA and the Cloud Security Alliance are
doing an exemplary job in this regard, and the Cloud Market Maturity Study is a great
example.
ISACA: What is the greatest change regarding cloud usage that we’ll see in the near
future?
Bhavesh: Disruption and democratization of data. As cloud computing, in spite of all its
challenges, permeates the B2B world, we will see a tremendous amount of disruptive
innovation where old models of business are no longer applicable and new ways of
thinking about processes will be forced upon the leaders at public/private
enterprises. This disruptive innovation is a good thing—we have all benefited
tremendously from iPhone, iPad and other tablet and smartphone hardware fueled by
cloud software (on the back end) in the B2C space. With the ongoing evolution of the
new generational shift in the workforce, the B2C innovations disrupting our
consumption of technology will force B2B cloud adoption and process changes. This is
not an “if” but a “when” scenario. In terms of data, we see that it will tremendously
democratize technology and its usage. The Big Data wave is fueled by cloud on its
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2. Cloud market maturity—where are we and what does it mean to cloud users - ISACA Now Page 2 of 3
back end. There are very real usages of Big Data driven by cloud: Who will click the
most on your link for sales and marketing? What will we see in the next decade in
cloud technology as businesses and consumers drive new data-driven transparency
and democratization of processes in public and private spheres in health care and
even corporate governance?
ISACA: Will adoption of the cloud continue at its current rate?
Bhavesh: I recently attended a cloud event hosted by a major vendor, and they
claimed to have more than 80,000 global registered users. They billed it as the largest
global tech event. By that example alone, I would say cloud adoption is here to stay
and increase manifold. Cloud is a new way of consuming technology fueled not just by
financial efficiencies but also by new realities of the world. It’s almost like global
trade—countries in supply chains becoming so intertwined with one another that some
major hiccup in one part of the world can now affect everyone else in real time. That’s
perhaps a bad thing, but can you imagine, for example, the United States not doing
business with other countries in coming years in spite of all financial and regulatory
challenges? If anything, we are more interdependent than ever.
Cloud technology adoption and evolution fuels this transformation of our societies and
our global trade, and the response is for the technology to evolve with this trend. I
foresee cloud adoption increasing, but the rate will be variable based on the types of
enterprises and industries. In the end, it’s kind of like online banking—many folks might
still prefer meeting their regular clerk at their local bank, but a large majority of people
in many countries are comfortable with financial transactions on the web, through
some data pipe that they don’t see or hear or feel or audit. It will take less than a
decade for this transformation with the cloud, I predict. This certainly poses challenges
to us in the security, risk and governance professions, but that should be an impetus
for more innovative thinking to provide solutions to our businesses, rather than to
simply ignore the trend and not evolve pragmatically with it. Make no mistake,
challenges are huge. How do we control data flow in a completely transparent
manner? Who owns data? How do we audit this at every level in its lifecycle?
Our work is cut out for us…all aboard and all hands on deck!
ISACA members receive CPE for attending this free event. To learn more or to
register, go here:
www.isaca.org/Education/Online-Learning/Pages/Webinar-Cloud-Market-Maturity.aspx
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