Mike Lynch claims cloud security fears unfounded

Autonomy founder and former HP executive Mike Lynch has outlined his vision for the cloud, delivering a forthright assessment of the technology that his current position as between jobs allows.

Lynch left HP earlier this year after his firm was acquired by the US giant for around $10bn, and is currently mulling his future in the industry, a position he used to make a joke in the opening of his speech at the Global Business Summit on ICT in London on Friday.

"It's nice to have something to do rather than hang around shopping centres looking menacing," he joked.

"One of the nice things about not working is that I don't have corporate PR department having kittens when I go off piste, so I will use this rare moment in my career to tell you what is really going on in cloud," he said.

Lynch then went on to outline several key aspects of the cloud that he believes chief information officers (CIO) need to be aware of when looking at the cloud, although said security is one where too much concerns is placed.

"Security is probably the first question people asks when the cloud is raised and it's a big PR issue, but reality is that bridge has been crossed a long time ago," he said.

"Autonomy has in its cloud probably some of the world's most commercially sensitive information from firms on Wall Street."

If big financial firms feel they can operate securely in the cloud, then it was likely to be secure enough for most businesses, he added. Furthermore, once firms decide to shift to the cloud, security issues do not stand in their way.