A peaceful cloud meander

BANGALORE, INDIA: Cloud computing is an increasingly crucial IT and business enabler. Gartner predicts that cloud market will be over the $148 billion mark by 2014. Cloud computing ecosystems are rising at a variety of levels, from marketplaces, to federations, backed by increasingly sophisticated ways to manage increasingly complex channel networks.

In a holistic view, the rise of cloud computing is part of a bigger trend i.e. the rise of the digital economy. This year, the landscape of cloud computing is expected to change immensely as cloud computing becomes inevitable and businesses grasp the value of cloud infrastructure, business applications for the cloud and platforms hosted in the cloud. We are in transition as we are in the midst of a multi-year shift from traditional static compute environments. Every new platform solves the shortcomings of the previous generation platform. Every new platform also brings its own drawbacks.

Now that we have understood the cloud computing concept well, we have started addressing the probable drawbacks of cloud computing-for instance the challenges of scale, complexity, security, compliance and SLAs.

Cloud computing is rapidly emerging as a feasible means to create dynamic, rapidly provisioned resources for operating platforms, applications, development environments, storage and backup capabilities, and many more IT functions. The cloud is expanding and it's also fuelling the struggle by the enterprises to achieve appropriate security for it. A staggering number of security considerations exist that information security professionals need to consider when evaluating the risks of cloud computing.

The first fundamental issue is the loss of hands-on control of system, application, and data security. Some of the cloud security pain points are; enforcing security policies, compliance reporting and employee training, while Bring your own Device (BYOD) initiatives, data control and potential data loss are among the most pressing cloud security concerns for businesses. The business units still hesitate in moving mission-critical applications and data outside the enterprise.

Is Cloud Computing Secure?

Security certainly depends on what's important for you. For instance, if it's an advertising site, cloud is perfectly secured for it. On the other side, if it's a military type of business or any other critical domain, it is probably not secured enough. There are lots of stuff out there that if you had it compromised, people's lives are at risk. In a nutshell, the nature of business is a big factor.

Some fields can give you immense opportunities to explore the cloud, while with the sensitive fields cloud has to be handled cautiously.

Best Practices for Security Assurance with Cloud

While choosing the services, security comparisons should not be made between cloud services and more established on-premise data storage methods. As a consumer of the cloud, you absolutely have to know what is secured. You are putting your critical data at stake; try to have answers to all your security concerns from the vendors, even if those are some silly queries. One thing to keep in mind is that the reputational damage of a security breach on your organisation can't be outsourced to your cloud provider.

Best practice for information security is a liaison between an organisation's practices and personal vigilance on behalf of the user. When it comes to cloud technology, standardising security requirements will tend to provide affirmative user experiences both at a business level and for the end consumer. It's advisable to implement a monitoring solution for periodical vigilance, manual or automated, to ensure that the security is on the right track. Leverage security-as-a-service solutions. Managed security solutions allow organizations to share responsibility for monitoring and management of security functions, this is particularly useful in

today's threat landscape where threats are extra- ordinarily dynamic and far more pervasive.

Cloud computing promises to improve dexterity and deliver greater efficiencies and cost savings to businesses. However, unless risk can be managed and data secured effectively, organizations will not fully benefit from the advantages of the cloud. Trustworthy cloud service providers with robust infrastructure will seek to prevent and/or resolve these issues and cloud service providers are prepared to guarantee the security of your organisations information.

Wishing you a peaceful and happy journey in the Cloud!