Cloud computing is not a curiosity or marketing hype, but rather a transformative movement that stands to revolutionize the way businesses invest in and consume technology, according to a new poll by consulting powerhouse Deloitte.

The survey of more than 750 enterprise-level IT executives found that less than 4 percent believe cloud computing is overhyped. Six out of 10 said that the cloud is a transformative technology that will drive financial benefits to IT users.

What's interesting about this poll is where IT executives see the initial benefits from cloud computing. Roughly one-quarter of the participants said they see the cloud as a viable alternative to on-premises server and storage. In other words, they want to offload their infrastructure to service providers. Enterprise and business software delivered as a cloud-based service was only appealing to 17 percent.

Standing in the way of widespread and rapid cloud computing adoption is security and ownership issues. Nearly 35 percent said security and privacy issues are their company's highest consideration when adopting a cloud-based solution. Another 22 percent said data controls and the ability to assure auditable compliance was a key issue.

The Project Nimbus team—the HTG Peer Group and Channel Insider collaboration on cloud computing—talked about ownership issues and security. Lyf Wildenberg, co-founder and president of MyTech Partners, has built a hosted environment for delivering cloud services to his customers. While they like the benefits of not having to host and manage their devices, he says people continue to want to come to his data center and “hug their servers.” It's a difficult conversation sometimes when you have to explain that the virtualized server that they're looking at is hosting four other companies' data and applications.

Data ownership and security issues are real, but there still seems to be a fundamental disconnect among consumers of cloud services about what they're actually buying. Just because infrastructure and applications are delivered over the Web doesn't mean that you own the back end of that process. Likewise, it's incumbent upon the provider of those services to ensure the security, privacy and integrity of the data and resources.