It is difficult to ignore the inevitability of a large-scale shift to cloud-based information storage. From a recent Federal mandate requiring agencies to move their IT operations to the cloud, to increased demand for electronic information storage options, online cloud storage and the associated technology is a hot topic in the IT world.

And it should be—a survey recently conducted by MeriTalk found that more than half of Federal agency IT budgets are spent on supporting mission-critical applications; if all agencies were to shift just three of these applications to the cloud, the government would save $16.6 billion.

But if the cloud is so great, then why isn’t everyone there already? Despite the many solutions that the cloud can offer, statistics show that companies and agencies alike are still hesitant to make the shift. According to a recent 2012 AIIM publication:

• 30% are seeing increasing use of unofficial cloud content management and file shares. Only 5% have an “official” cloud-based option. 19% prevent access to non-approved sites.
• 68% are looking to use cloud collaboration within the business and between remote sites.
• Most cloud users are uploading files one-by-one, although 28% are synchronized to an on-premise repository. 26% are archiving content or emails to the cloud.
• Of those organizations with a defined cloud strategy, 20% intend to move their document and content management systems completely to the cloud, whereas 38% are choosing a hybrid of linked cloud and on-premise.

Pay close attention to that last point—20% plan to move completely to the cloud. Given the many benefits of movement to the cloud, and the inevitability of a large-scale shift to online cloud storage, relatively few organizations are making the transition. Why the reluctance?

For starters, security is a big concern. While cloud service providers are racing to create secure storage sites, they must first convince companies that information stored in the cloud could be safe from data breaches and other major threats to information security. But security aside, there are other barriers to a large-scale migration to the cloud, including budget concerns and application structures. The MeriTalk survey respondents also reported that the majority of their budgets are tied up in the creation and maintenance of existing applications, making a movement to the cloud a huge budget commitment that, especially in the wake of security concerns, they can’t yet afford.

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