The cloud is being adopted at a rapid rate throughout the private sector, largely because enterprises are finally seeing the cost efficiency and scalability benefits associated with using the technology.

The cloud is being used throughout the private sector, even if decision-makers are unaware of it.

Although the cloud is rapidly gaining momentum in the private sector, adoption rates are sometimes encumbered by security concerns, as many decision-makers are unsure whether the public cloud can safely store sensitive information.

Small and medium-sized businesses are in a unique position to adopt cloud computing technologies to remain competitive with large firms.

When it comes to storing sensitive data and applications in the cloud, having the ability to trust the service provider is everything.

Although the cloud is not necessarily new anymore, the technology is still in its infancy regarding global adoption.

Although the cloud offers companies a lot of promise, not all decision-makers are able to adopt the technology because of regulatory compliance or regional legal issues and basic technical worries.

Decision-makers were often intimidated by the cloud when it first emerged, as many IT departments claimed hosted environments were not secure enough to manage highly sensitive information and solutions.

As more organizations migrate resources and information to the cloud, decision-makers need to understand that the responsibility of sensitive information remains with the company, regardless of where the information resides.

Despite all the promises of the cloud, decision-makers and IT departments need to implement robust security tools and practices to ensure the virtual environments are safe from malicious individuals.