Cloud-based CRM, marketing and sales force applications have become very popular in recent years, led in large part by Salesforce.com and its offerings. To give one example, Urban Decay's new website has launched using Demandware’s Commerce platform. The site gives online customers a look at color palettes, product finishes, as well as offers reviews and photo and video uploading.

Security Issues Finally Solved?

One perceived drawback to these applications has been a concern about security. While these vendors maintain that their servers and processes are secure, the thought of leaving customer data residing on third party infrastructure has been enough to frighten some potential corporate users away from the cloud model. Salesforce.com just announced a tweak to its model that, if followed by other providers, could address this issue. Its new Database.com Data Residency Option lets companies keep readable versions of data on premise.

This will prove to be a good application for government agencies, Nucleus Research Vice President Rebecca Wettemann told CRM Buyer. "As governments look to cut their IT costs the cloud is a natural way for them to do that," she said, "but they have specific data security concerns, as do many other companies.

Marketers Too

Brands as well need to secure their data just as securely as a government agencies, if they want to retain their customers’ trust. A study from ExactTarget and CoTweet last year looked at consumers concerns regarding trust and privacy of promotional emails. It found, among other trends, that consumers tend to give the benefit of the doubt to big brands, and assume their email addresses will be safe, secure, and unshared.

When that trust is proven to be misplaced, brands in all categories suffer from consumers’ resulting loss of faith.