Cloud computing's inherent security risks will prevent it
from becoming dominant in the enterprise, says Gil Shwed,
co-developer of the world's first firewall software.
"Cloud will complement traditional computing, but will not take
over," said Shwed, co-founder, chairman and chief executive at
Check Point Software Technologies.
Security is about control, and few large enterprises will give
up control of business-critical applications until the benefits
justify the risk, he said.
Until that point is reached, Shwed predicts larger organisations
will adopt
cloud computing only for simple functions that can benefit from
economies of scale.
Another likely area of adoption is where there is a lack of
viable alternatives, as has happened with customer relationship
management (CRM).
Businesses are not using CRM in the cloud because is more cost
effective or particularly secure, Shwed said.
According to Shwed, the inherent risk of cloud computing is
unlikely to disappear because it is not a technological weakness
that can be overcome by innovation.
The risk comes from businesses not having control over their own
data and being able to account for it if things go wrong, he
said.