Despite the ongoing threat of cyberattacks, business leaders around the world are finding new ways to implement the cloud into their daily operations. The advantages of streamlined data storage, backup, workforce globalization and carbon footprint reduction are too useful to ignore.

That said, these operations would be wise to keep cybersecurity in mind. It's hard to know when or where a hacker will strike, so it's best to be prepared for any possible threat. This emerging sentiment has created a fertile atmosphere for preventative methods such as encryption, data decentralization and biometrics. Meanwhile, these strategies will remain pertinent so long as the cloud market continues to grow.

Lofty projections for cloud computing
451 Research projects cloud market revenue to reach nearly $20 billion by the end of 2016, Firstpost reported.

"Cloud computing is on the upswing and demand for public cloud services remains strong," Yulitza Peraza, an analyst of quantitative services with 451 Research, told the news outlet. "However, public cloud adoption continues to face hurdles including security concerns, transparency and trust issues, workload readiness and internal non-IT-related organizational issues."

The market research group conducted a survey and found that only 12 cloud service providers accumulated more than $75 million in revenue in 2012. On the other end of the spectrum, 83 percent of cloud vendors recorded $15 million or less of revenue in 2012.

Survey identifies positive feedback for the cloud
Tata Communications recently conducted a survey of IT managers and found that 65 percent of respondents say that cloud computing has expedited technology access. Another 83 percent of respondents said that they are experiencing unexpected benefits with the cloud, such as increases in productivity and reduced costs.

"Cloud technologies are really helping to drive more information technology standardization," John Hayduk, the chief technology officer at Tata Communications, told the news outlet. "So tasks like creating a server can be done virtually, and not require any real human intervention to connect or install a server. In the cloud application space, you simply have to create a commercial relationship to get access to the service and start using."

Biometrics make sense for cloud users
As the cloud continues to find its way into more and more workplaces, business leaders should consider different forms of biometric security. This technology uses personal identification, such as fingerprints or vocal recognition, to ensure access control for only the right employees. Yet the most sure-fire biometric technology is a dual-access system, which requires the IDs of two individuals at the same time.