Gartner predicts the worldwide market for Cloud computing is increasing from $45B in 2009 to $150B in 2013. And, by 2012, “20% of businesses will own no IT assets.”

IDC points to security as the #1 challenge for Cloud service providers and thus “remains the top opportunity for IT suppliers to tackle as they position themselves as market leaders in the Cloud era.”

Providers of all types of Cloud computing services (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS) are poised for spectacular growth and profits. Until now, Cloud providers have done a reasonably good job of keeping their clients data safe, secure and private. Concerns remain in the areas of security, privacy and compliance.

While some security measures are proprietary and/or require secrecy to maintain a competitive advantage (security by obscurity), others are strengthened by the fact they are transparent and well known.

Using Cloud services can make it difficult to maintain compliance with various industry regulations. If Cloud providers make some of their security procedures transparent, thus verifying their implementation of valid security practices on a periodic or, ideally, on a continuous basis, they will further open their doors to increased business.