Cloud computing without trust is just low-hanging fog
Posted by Brad McMillan on Sun, Mar 27, 2011 @ 09:31 PM
Time and time again, when you look at research, the big objection that comes out, the biggest doubt that anybody has about adopting cloud services is security.
In answering that objection let’s first take a look at how you secure your IT infrastructure today. If you are a typical small business you probably haven’t given it much thought. If you are one of the lucky ones you may have a good managed IT service provider who has implemented and documented security standards and guidelines. Even these businesses are susceptible to a security breach from one lost or stolen laptop and even fewer of them have a disaster recovery or business continuity plan in place. So how secure really are they?
Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) in most cases will in fact have superior security practices and technology in place than the best of small businesses. Economies of scale allow cloud service providers to spend thousands on securing your data and you only pay for the small portion you use. The complexity of security is greatly increased when data is distributed over a wider area and/or number of devices. Security in a cloud environment is improved greatly simply due to the centralization of data. The reality is that security is as good or better than under on-premise IT, in part because providers are able to devote resources to solving security issues that many small businesses just couldn’t afford.
With any outsourcing model, whether it be cloud computing or something else, you have to trust your outsourcer. You not only have to trust the outsourcer's security, but its reliability, its availability and its business continuity. This should not be anything new for small business; IT security has always been about trust for them.
