Good points. The fear factor of cloud computing is rather high in comparison to on-premise, behind the firewall solutions. There is a comfort in knowing and better understanding where my data resides when it is somewhere I can physically see it versus in some virtual “cloud”. Whether it is rational or not, the fear factor cannot be underestimated.

“Secure” is a technical absolute, something you have or you don’t. Its about fear, something people wish for up to whatever maximum then can afford, in money, convenience, etc. Often far less than events prove they need, since people are more inclined to spend for functionality, not security.

“The cloud” doesn’t deal very effectively with those fears, compared to say, an enterprise firewall, which can be described and understood by anyone in minutes.

If something bad happens in “the cloud”, the consequences can’t be determined by just having “our guys” examine the logs. Its “their guys” you must rely on, and their priority for doing so is specified by whatever SLA agreements are in place, that most fear-holders little ability/willingness to read/understand.