Securing the Cloud, Dispelling Fears: Ways to Combat Climate Change

High-speed network protocols operate on high speed networks (i.e., Cloud and Smart Grid), which offer low-cost, easy-access to education, e-health, communication and business services. One of the important reasons going forward is their capacity to replace (dematerialization of) physical goods with virtual ones. Research shows digital goods are superior in terms of minimizing the use of energy and CO2 versus their physical counterparts, including physical activities (e.g, travel). But dematerialization of goods comes with challenges. One of them is security. Various (educational, military, government and medical) institutions have been reluctant in adopting the full dematerialization of their specific goods (medical records, and classified military and government information) and delivery of services because of Cyber adversaries. Transmitting sensitive data for these organizations is, hence, as important as national security. We conducted a survey to gather data to build a comprehensive empirical evidence to support our contention that one of the major deterrents of successful adoption of Cloud Computing is security. We present our results to aid the industry and researchers increase awareness and to create a strategy in addressing this issue.