According to a survey that Symantec sponsored about how to avoid hidden cloud costs, “94% of the 3,236 information-technology managers in 29 countries said their companies were either already using cloud services or discussing how to do so.”

These rapscallions are ordering up Salesforce.com or setting up Dropbox to share information without consulting IT. “It’s happening to three-quarters of those using cloud, according to the survey, and it occurs more in large enterprises (83%) than in small to midsize ones (70%).”

While this may drive many in IT to write new chapters in the employee manual, the effect of all of this is actually positive. Here’s why:

First, this lights a fire under IT to get their hands around the value and the use of cloud-based systems. For the past several years, they have been dragging their feet as to the movement to the cloud. This at least forces the creation of a plan.

Second, employees are now aware of the value of public cloud computing. Thus, an internal sales process is much easier when larger systems have to make the move to the cloud.

Finally, IT is certainly playing up the security threats of using public cloud computing, such as file sharing via DropBox. For the most part, the risk exists elsewhere, such as email and USB drives. Public clouds are not your problem, and the security threats are typically exaggerated.

What’s the bottom line? It’s time to embrace the change.