Widespread adoption of software-as-a-service products is being held back by concerns over cybersecurity, according to a new report from iboss Inc.

The “Head in the Clouds: Misconceptions Hindering Enterprise Cloud Adoption” report, based on a survey of information technology decision makers and office employees in U.S. enterprises, found that 94 percent of decision makers had concerns about moving their organization to the cloud — with 61 percent of respondents citing data privacy as their primary concern.

Some 64 percent of IT decision makers said they believe that the pace of SaaS application adoption is outpacing their cybersecurity capabilities, with 94 percent saying that they need to update security policies to operate in a cloud-first environment.

Concerns about SaaS also extend to cloud-based cybersecurity solutions themselves, with 64 percent of respondents indicating that they were hesitant about switching away from existing in-house security solutions for cloud alternatives.

Although there was a natural concern about malicious attacks from outside the organization, the survey found that employees were often at the forefront of enterprises at risk. Close to two-thirds of office workers surveyed said that they had bypassed the IT department to access a new application, with nearly 80 percent of decision makers saying they believe this type of shadow IT is a major security concern.

Indicating that workers are becoming more tech-savvy, 82 percent of office workers admitted to going around their virtual private network when working, so not surprisingly, 91 percent of IT decision makers think they need to improve security policies to effectively operate in a cloud environment.

“This survey clearly shows that large organizations are facing many challenges that can be solved with cloud-based cybersecurity solutions, but they are holding back because of avoidable concerns,” said iboss co-founder and Chief Executive Paul Martini. “Office workers are clearly demanding access to SaaS applications and remote work capabilities; the challenge now is to secure them effectively.”

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