Cloud Computing Security Worries, But 45 Percent of Local Governments Still Use the Approach

Local government officials’ trepidation about cloud computing could be easing, as evidenced by a survey of IT decision-makers released April 20, that found 45 percent of local governments are using some form of cloud computing for applications or services. The survey, conducted during the first two weeks of April by the nonprofit Public Technology Institute (PTI), aggregated the opinions of 93 local, government IT executives. The findings revealed that an additional 19 percent of local governments plan to implement some form of cloud computing within the next 12 months, while 35 percent don’t intend to do so at all. Most public-sector CIOs are still reluctant to put critical data in public clouds because of security concerns, said PTI’s executive director, and some jurisdictions are limited by statutes that restrict where and how data is stored.