Many businesses spend more than $100,000 annually on additional cloud security features

Businesses prefer storing data in the cloud but plan to invest in extra security precautions, according to B2B ratings and reviews firm Clutch.

Nearly 70% of businesses on the cloud prefer storing data in the cloud instead of on a legacy system, and these businesses are willing to invest heavily in keeping their cloud’s data secure.

In fact, over half of companies surveyed spend more than $100,000 annually on additional cloud security features.

One reason for the high investment in cloud security is companies’ greater awareness of the security risks that are out of their cloud provider’s control, according to industry experts. When it comes to application-level security, including user access, password sharing, and other individual interactions, the company and its employees shoulder the responsibility for security.

“There is suddenly a number of people recognizing that application-level security needs to be done by the user, not the vendor,” said Haresh Kumbhani, CEO of Zymr, Inc., a cloud consulting and agile software development services company. “If this is the case, then they need to invest top dollar in securing the data.”

In another finding, nearly 1 in 4 businesses on the cloud indicate that they use IoT services. However, the quality of security for IoT varies.

“Nascent is the first word that comes to mind [regarding IoT security]. For every company that properly locks down IoT-enabled machines on a factory floor, you have thousands of unsecured ‘smart’ lightbulbs,” said Jamie MacQuarrie, co-founder of Appivo, a platform for developing cloud-based web and mobile applications.

Companies can protect themselves from security threats and prevent issues by following both mandatory and voluntary security guidelines and implementing additional security features, such as extra encryption.

Currently, 65% of businesses follow the security guidelines released by the Cloud Security Alliance, and 64% of businesses use encryption as an additional security tool, according to the survey.

The survey includes responses from 283 IT professionals at businesses across the United States that use cloud computing.