More on Cloud Computing

June 17, 2010 Computer News

Everyone these days is all agog about Cloud computing. What is it exactly? And how can it effectively be maintained and used? Read on for more info…

According to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, “It’s going to be an ongoing challenge and ongoing area of not only technical innovation but also of communications innovations. Some people think the cloud is pretty darn safe, some people know that it is not safe and secure, and some other people don’t think much about it at all. Can we give people the tools that let them feel in control, let them feel responsible? I think [users] will know [cloud security] when they see it. The problem right now is that users don’t really know what’s going on…and really making the tools and technologies that make it easy to manage the interaction is important.”

Another viewpoint expressed is that of Eva Chen (CEO at Trend Micro), where she said: “Sharing makes cloud security a challenge, said, in a conversation with Network World at RSA. Traditionally, the IT infrastructure you owned. With cloud computing, you share the computing power, you share the storage. You want to know who you’re sharing with. For security, are you going to live in a hotel with your door unlocked? Like a hotel, you may be temporarily renting in cloud computing. You need to know there are locks.”

As is stated by yet another expert, Art Coviello, president of EMC’s RSA division and executive vice president at EMC, at RSA, he feels that “The hardest thing about cloud security? I honestly feel it’s at the chip level because having that hardware root of trust is critical. It’s the sine qua non of the process,” Coviello said. “Another thing that’s a big challenge in this is manageability. To manage all the controls, [you have to] merge security policy with your overall business policy and get those coordinated and leveraged. The organization subscribing to the cloud service has to be able to dictate federation or policy to the cloud provider. Only they can they decide.”

According to Dave DeWalt, president and CEO at McAfee, “The biggest challenge is that many companies are nervous now because for 20 to 30 years they’ve controlled their destiny, but in the cloud approach, applications are managed sometimes by several vendors to control their data. They’re uneasy about losing control over critical assets. That’s the first thing. And you don’t have any standards for cloud-based computing today. The maturation of cloud-based computing is in its infancy, so it needs to evolve. Vulnerabilities exist and mistakes are made.”

Enrique Salem, president and CEO at Symantec, went on to add his opinions on cloud computing and suggests as follows: “To begin with, from an infrastructure perspective, security will need to move closer to the applications and data. In shared services architecture, it isn’t sufficient for security to simply protect the cloud perimeter, the data center or even the individual servers and storage arrays. Secondly, organizations need stronger information governance for managing corporate information. Organizations need to define policies and procedures and enforce them. This can be easier said than done. Another critical requirement is the need for IT to have better visibility into the security posture and operations of the cloud service provider. Service consumers need real-time visibility into their cloud vendor’s security posture so that they can trust their information is being secured and managed in accordance with their governance policies. Finally, cloud-based security services that can work together with on-premise solutions will be required. This interoperability will be key and enable organizations to leverage different models together and maximize the benefits they both bring.”