Given its rapid adoption, virtualization can potentially benefit billions—or serve as a vector for calamity. Even as it opens new avenues of productivity, cost-savings, and environmental relief, virtualization alters a company’s infrastructure profoundly, testing its ability to monitor and manage the new environment. Virtualization is enabling the global evolution to Cloud computing, but along with that comes the challenge of securing applications and data in that Cloud. The … [Read more...]

Whenever the subject of cloud computing comes up there are two facts that seem to dominate the conversation.  The first is that enterprises and small business would desperately like to make greater use of the explosion in new cloud services and offerings.  However the discussion will usually rapidly turn to the fact that the potential of the cloud remains out of reach for many business uses.  The reason?  Security. Concerns over the security of information in cloud infrastructures, … [Read more...]

Europe needs to become not only cloud-friendly but “cloud-active” to fully realize the benefits of cloud computing. That’s the view of  ETNO (The European Telecommunications Network Operator‘s Association) in a recently-issued paper on cloud computing development in Europe, which emphasized the importance of relieving obstacles surrounding data privacy and security. Fragmented regulations are a particular problem in Europe, where sometimes restrictive legislation of the EU and … [Read more...]

Virtual Private Networks, such as VPN with ATT, act as a secure tunnel that safely connects the user to a remote network across a public network. Thanks to VPNs and the abundance of cheap Internet bandwidth, companies no longer have to lease dedicated lines to connect 2 remote locations. Instead, they can establish a secure encrypted channel which can safely transfer data between both locations across the Internet. Another common use for VPNs would be for laptop users who want to connect … [Read more...]

In early August, a lightning strike at a transformer owned by one of Amazon's power suppliers caused a major failure in Amazon Web Services' European cloud. The power outage affected, among others, the Elastic Compute Cloud (ECS) and Rational Database Service (RDS) cloud services. According to the Amazon Web Services status page, a transformer from an energy supplier for one of the availability zones (EU-WEST-1 region) in Dublin was struck by lightning. An availability zone is a set of … [Read more...]

As many of my blog visitors come from India, I thought it was interesting to put together a short post about the status of cloud computing in India. It is a common consensus that India will play a important role in the growth of cloud computing in the coming years. This is not at all surprising as the cloud will enable much more companies, not least SMEs, to enter the market quicker and more easily as well as benefit economically. And few countries, if any, are producing more SMEs than India, … [Read more...]

According to a new survey from the Cloud Industry Forum of 450 organizations in the UK, almost half (48 percent) are already using cloud computing in some shape or form. The survey showed high levels of satisfaction with cloud service providers, but lingering confusion about business interruption issues and the consequences of downtime. The Cloud Becomes Mainstream The survey suggests that cloud services are no longer a buzzword, but already in widespread practice. Not … [Read more...]

Several factors combine to make data security in the cloud a challenge. Web applications have fundamental vulnerabilities. HTTP is the cloud protocol of choice for everything from file backup in the cloud to Sales force management in the cloud. HTTP and HTML evolved from a protocol for static file delivery to a protocol for 2 way applications – a purpose for which they  were never designed; let’s examine some of the data security issues with the current rich content Web 2.0 … [Read more...]

There are some good reasons why cloud computing is growing so rapidly. First of all there are the technology enablers: Bandwidth and computing power is cheap. Software development is more accessible than ever. Small software teams can develop great products and distribute it world wide instantly. But cloud computing goes beyond supply-side economics and directly to the heart of the demand-side – the customer who consumes IT. Consuming computing as a utility simplifies life for a … [Read more...]

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) has done a great job in the furthering awarenes and creating a homogeneous understanding of the major security concerns in cloud computing. It is best known for its security Guidance for Critical Areas of Focus in Cloud Computing, with its latest version issued in Dec. 2009. The CSA guidance clearly describes the major concerns, from a security perspective, that companies need to be aware of if they are considering a Cloud migration or … [Read more...]