The cloud offers your business many benefits, mainly reduced IT-related costs and increased productivity. However, just like in everything in life, those upsides are not without downsides. One of the biggest downsides is cloud security.

Indeed, security has been a major cause of sensitive data breach and leaks. What’s more the security of your business’ sensitive data is somehow compromised, especially when you have yours in public clouds (off-premise.) CIOs and IT professionals knew the risks all along: According to a cloud computing infographic released by CIO, 54 percent of IT execs consider cloud computing security as top priority for 2012, despite the fact that 85 percent of IT pros are confident in cloud provider’s commitment in providing a secure computing environment for clients. Furthermore, 51 percent of respondents consider the current risks of the cloud are serious concerns and more critical today.

It seems that cloud providers need to step up their game in securing the cloud. As for IT pros, they seem to find ways to secure their data in the public cloud when things go wrong, other than relying heavily on the cloud providers’ efforts.

Check out this insightful cloud security infographic:

Via CIO