Survey: Feds View Security as Biggest Hurdle to Cloud Adoption

Nearly three in four public sector employees report progress moving at least some applications to the cloud, yet nearly half view data security as the biggest impediment toward increased cloud adoption.

That’s according to a survey conducted in November by the Government Business Council, a division of Government Executive Media Group, Nextgov’s parent company. The survey found 48% of the 278 federal, state and local public sector employees polled by GBC ranked data security as the top challenge to cloud migration, followed by budget constraints (42%), cumbersome legacy IT systems (33%) and a shortage of cloud experts (24%).

The survey comes as the General Services Administration is looking to augment its Federal Risk and Authorization Management program office, which vets and authorizes cloud service providers’ offerings before agencies can use them. GSA plans to incorporate automation into the FedRAMP process, in part to offset high costs and time to market delays identified through industry feedback and internal audits.

Those surveyed indicated a strong interest in hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments. Hybrid environments offer cloud solutions that work in concert with internal, on premise data centers. More than half of those surveyed (54%) indicated a strong or moderate interest in hybrid cloud, and 13% of those surveyed already use hybrid cloud services in their agencies.