Security in the cloud is back in the spotlight. During a live videocast today, our panelists-- Liz Mann, CISO of Mycroft Inc., Lina Liberti, leader of the CA Technologies security business unit, and Joseph Puglisi, former Emcor CIO and a member of the Cloud Computing Consortium at Stevens Institute-- took a fresh look at the issues confounding CIOs and CISOs as athey adopt cloud solutions. In particular, they discussed who is most responsible for ensuring data security in the cloud.

Puglisi said that concerns over security should not prevent you from trying cloud solutions. Mann agreed that as a business partner she tells customers about the need to tread carefully but also to move ahead with the cloud. She belives that good communication between the business and IT is key to having more secure cloud networks. "If you establish a line of communication, you will make business people more educated consumers."

On the topic of who bears most responsibility for cloud security, Puglisi believes that businesses must "trust but verify." The user "has to accept some responsibility," he said. "You have to have a failover plan in place just as if it were your own system. While you are depending on the third party, and you should have high expectations, you also need to have provisions in place and be ready for an inevitable failure."

Mycroft's Mann said that "services should be an extenstion of IT. It is not an excuse to abandon everything that came before."

When the Smart Enterprise Exchange videocast audience was polled, 75% said security is a shared responsibility between the business and the provider.

Watch for more coverage of this live videocast in coming days.