Research Article
Cloud Security from Users Point of View: A Pragmatic Study with Thematic Analysis
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-319-23802-9_12, author={Saira Syed and Quazi Mamun}, title={Cloud Security from Users Point of View: A Pragmatic Study with Thematic Analysis}, proceedings={International Conference on Security and Privacy in Communication Networks. 10th International ICST Conference, SecureComm 2014, Beijing, China, September 24-26, 2014, Revised Selected Papers, Part II}, proceedings_a={SECURECOMM}, year={2015}, month={12}, keywords={Cloud computing Data security Threats Cause Strategies}, doi={10.1007/978-3-319-23802-9_12} }- Saira Syed
Quazi Mamun
Year: 2015
Cloud Security from Users Point of View: A Pragmatic Study with Thematic Analysis
SECURECOMM
Springer
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-23802-9_12
Abstract
Despite economic pressure for business to cut costs and fervent assurances from cloud service providers, security remains a top barrier to cloud adoption. Interests in cloud computing are high and many organisations say they are planning to move in that direction. However, the reality is that only 20 % of UK organisations are using infrastructure-as-a-service and only 36 % are using software-as-a-service, according to the National Computing Centre (NCC, UK) research. Lack of trust in cloud computing is slowing broader adoption of cloud services. Therefore, it is important to understand the consumers’ perspective on cloud security concerns, especially data security issues. This allows the future research to proceed in the right direction to alleviate users’ concerns. In this paper, we present an empirical analysis of IT experts and professionals viewpoint related to security issues in clouds. The study is based on the surveys conducted by three different groups in the time period from 2010 to 2013. Qualitative research analysis is used to collect perception of IT experts and professionals by using interviewing technique. The viewpoints of the experts are then analysed and a qualitative and thematic analysis is presented. The study presents most critical threats, possible causes, and fundamental strategies to avoid them.