According to ISACA, which now has more than 95 000 members world-wide, its research – the fourth global status Report on the Governance of Enterprise IT (GEIT) – claims to show that 47% do not plan to use cloud computing at all in the near future, listing security as the main reason.
Fifty percent, meanwhile, cite privacy concerns, with legacy infrastructure issues holding 35% of the more than 830 survey respondents back.
Of the executives who use or plan to use cloud computing for IT services, 60% were non-mission critical and 40% would also trust the cloud for mission-critical IT services.
ISACA notes that organizations are also actively employing outsourcing, with 93% fully or partially outsourcing some of their IT activities.
Delving into the research reveals that 95% of respondents consider governance of enterprise IT important.
This, says ISACA, reveals an almost universally shared perception of IT as a critical contributor to overall business strategy, no matter where the organization is on the path of GEIT maturity.
Interestingly, the report says that use of social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter at work is not highly prized; only one out of five respondents believes that the benefits of employees using social networking outweigh the risks.
Commenting on the research, Ken Van der Wal, the association's international vice president, said that emerging technologies such as cloud computing and outsourcing can be managed effectively by integrating good governance over IT.
"Organizations need to adopt new service delivery models to stay competitive, and this is fueling a strong commitment to enterprise IT governance across the C-suite", he said.
"Assessing the value of current investments, building consensus among stakeholders and mitigating risk with third-party providers all require a comprehensive governance framework for organizations to be sure they are doing the right things", he added.
Plans call for the research to be discussed at ISACA's EuroCACS 2011 event, which takes place in Manchester, UK, on March 20–23.