Microsoft Cloud: Pros and Cons of Cloud

A survey conducted by comScore, on behalf of Microsoft reveals that small and medium size business which use cloud services believe that it boosts their security and cuts costs.
The survey was undertaken of 94 small and midsize businesses using cloud services and 93 that did not.


The survey also revealed that businesses not using cloud services fear that cloud is not secure enough and that cost of shifting to cloud is an obstacle.


The upside for security is that cloud services on average cuts 18 hours per week from security management time, because much of it is handled by the provider, says Tim Rains, director of Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing. "It doesn't eliminate the need for patch management on-premise, but there's less of it to manage," says Rains.


It saves money and also increases security because providers are likely to patch and upgrade in a timely manner as a competitive edge.


Companies using cloud services enjoyed decreases in security spending that are more than five times the savings by businesses that didn't use cloud services. 


20% of the companies that use cloud say they saved on their security management costs, but the number was just 4% for those that didn't use cloud services.