CybersecurityCloud computing addressing security issues
With cloud improvements such as Google’s “sharding” — the dividing of an individual file among hundreds of systems to prevent someone from gaining a useful amount of information out of individual documents — being implemented and followed closely by competing providers, security and accessibility will become cloud facets continually improved upon
There has been a push by Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Nokia, and others to make cloud computing services work as outsourced IT security services do. The expanding enterprise cloud computing is quickly becoming cheaper to run because it virtually runs itself; no staff, extra products, or facilities are required to monitor and update the cloud’s computing functions and abilities. What else are businesses interested in purchasing when they opt for monthly subscriptions to this solution?
Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, offered his vision of the potentiality and capabilities of cloud computing during IndiMix2010, an exclusive conference for Web developers and designers:
The cloud will change the way you look at hardware. Today, you write applications designed for servers keeping in mind the deployment environment. In the cloud era, you will write applications that are designed to scale and have the capability to be deployed immediately. The cloud will make hardware that does not look like a server, but a data center that comes in a box and has processors, storage and networking integrated with each other.
Scalability refers to the ability of a network system to handle increased loads when resources are added and reformatted. Another relevant term is multi-tenancy, in which every sharer uses the same app, as opposed to distributing redundant copies or obsolete versions. Upgrades would be taken care of automatically and the purchasing of servers will be replaced by a monthly subscription cost.
Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com, described during a company tour event how the stylistic interfaces of Twitter and Facebook have both influenced a new social networking model named Chatter, enabling a real-time collaboration cloud in which employees can update each other and remain wholly integrated. The widespread transition of moving from desktop Internet computing to mobile Internet computing is another reason he believes this new social model will be a success.
CEO Jeff Bezos of Seattle-based Amazon.com commented on cloud computing as “[having] the potential to be as big as our retail business,” and with Netflix using Amazon’s cloud services to store movie subscriptions and content libraries for video game platforms and the Apple iPad, partnerships seem to be the next step for the electronic commerce company.
In his keynote speech to the 7,000 delegates at the Computer Associates (CA) World conference in Las Vegas, William McCracken, president and CEO of CA made the announcement as the company launched a range of new cloud solutions, including SaaS monitoring product Nimsoft on Demand, a comprehensive network device manager. Able to identify with the ever-changing dynamics of his business sector, McCracken readily admitted to the blowback one of his competitors dealt his company. “Michael Dell built a better model, and when we discovered what he was doing, it took us a couple of years to compete again.”
Most cloud providers use business continuity planning to recover misplaced or lost data in the event of an emergency or mishap, but the shared resource nature of the system and technology gaps can still be accessed by a hacker, not to mention the information that can be extracted through a court issued subpoena. A contractual caveat would be to establish the most efficient means of packaging and delivering of customer data/applications following the termination of a provider-customer relationship. All other erroneous information should be deleted from the provider’s infrastructure.
With cloud improvements such as Google’s “sharding” — the dividing of an individual file among hundreds of systems to prevent someone from gaining a useful amount of information out of individual documents — being implemented and followed closely by competing providers, security and accessibility will become facets continually to improve upon, such as in the case of McCracken’s empowering capitulation: “Change is happening, being driven by economy, technology and user needs, and when things change, we need to change.”
