While the private cloud is growing fast today, concerns about data sovereignty make hybrid cloud solutions attractive to many companies.
While consumers mostly operate in the public cloud, with services such as Dropbox and Gmail, companies are increasingly relocating to private cloud, which combines the benefits of cloud computing with autonomy and above all data sovereignty.
The private cloud is one of the biggest growth areas in the cloud segment -- at least, according to market researcher Gartner in its "Hype Cycle for Cloud Computing 2012." Some 75 percent of respondents said they intend to have at least drawn up a strategy in this area by 2014.
When worlds collide: Cloud computing in the USA and Europe
But the US and Europe have different attitudes toward the cloud. In Germany, the cloud is still rated by many companies as unsafe. In particular, midsized enterprises are hesitant about placing data in the public cloud. These concerns are driven, in part, by a statement made in mid–2011 by Gordon Frazer, managing director at Microsoft UK. When asked by the UK IT industry news service ZDNet whether Microsoft could guarantee that European data stored in datacenters was protected against the USA Patriot Act, Frazer stated that neither Microsoft nor any other company could issue such a pledge.
And now the German government also wants to access cloud data. The Federal Criminal Police Office, the Federal Police, and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution are currently developing proposals at various levels to be able to access data on cloud services easier and faster. This emerged from a response to an enquiry raised by the Social Democrats.
In the US, companies and users are more relaxed about possible access by the state. "The USA is by its very nature a little more laid-back about this issue," explained cloud computing and technology analyst René Büst. "In the future we'll see a mix of public and private clouds which are connected by means of a hybrid cloud. It's especially important to first consider the classification of data and then decide which belongs in the public cloud and which ought to be kept in a private one."
The future belongs to hybrid IT
Why the US thinks one step ahead is above all due to the providers themselves. Almost all the big ones have their headquarters in the United States. And a key indicator is that all the major players, such as Amazon and Microsoft, are currently expanding their portfolios massively with private cloud solutions. Microsoft is playing an especially prominent role with its Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012. In addition, more flexible solutions will soon be available in which datacenters and hardware are shared with others. As the analysts at Gartner say, it's conceivable that such resources will be used jointly but isolated by means of virtual private networks.
In the near future, we'll only be talking about hybrid IT. The private cloud will serve as a bridging technology in order to integrate different types of clouds more smoothly. In practice, just a few clicks will decide whether services come from a private, public, or hybrid cloud. For providers, it's just a question of security -- and for companies, a question of data sovereignty.
— Charlotte Erdmann comments on a wide range of technologies from her base in Berlin. In addition to blogging, she is a media and communication consultant, organizing and managing large customer magazines and marketing activities within the IT industry.
Cloud security has been and will continue to be under fire. If data is out there on the cloud you can bet there are always going to be people that want to get it. A company needs to be vigilant in staying up with new security measures to best protect their data. Let's not forget though that there are plenty of data breaches that occur in datacenters, not the cloud. Regardless of where you pit your data security needs to be A #1.
Like everything else, cloud computing too has its pros and cons. While the technology can prove to be a great asset to your company, it could also cause harm if not understood and used properly.
In my opinion, cloud computing is a great opportunity for small businesses to off-load the hassle and costs of IT management – as long as they can live with the disadvantages. Security issues related to having their business data 'out' on the Internet seem to be the number one concern of business owners.
Much of a company's data, which is supposedly "off the cloud", is essentially stored on multiple servers, sometimes spanning across several countries. This means that if a certain center develops and issue and cannot be accessed, it might pose a serious problem for the company involved. This problem would intensify if the data is stored in a server of a different country.
This being a potential issue, companies need to discuss it with their providers much in advance of beginning work on cloud computing. The company needs to clarify if the provider can totally guarantee service availability even during periods of bandwidth interruption and similar other issues.
To remotely accomplish what you suggest is to place each company's data on a physically separate server -- and, that would not be feasible financially. Virtual servers are not secure, it now has been proven.
Storing information in the cloud could make the company vulnerable to external threats. As you are well aware, nothing on the Internet is completely secure and hence, there is always the lurking possibility of stealth of sensitive data.
All types of company data must be accounted for in this process, including official intellectual property such as patents, trademarks and other copyrighted material; as also operating processes, source codes, user manuals, plans, reports and the like. Though the latter processes are not actually considered as intellectual property, their loss would definitely cause damage to the business and the company's reputation at large.
Most importantly, an effective data protection strategy complies with enterprise privacy requirements as stipulated by the law. The other reason is that maintaining an effective data protection policy helps the company take a complete inventory of all their data processes, intellectual property and so on; thus also helping create a comprehensive security strategy for the same.
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Early last month, the Rhineland-Palatinate regional government opened up its data to the public. During CeBIT, it launched the Open Government Data Portal Rhineland-Palatinate (OGDP-RP), which will provide centralized access to administrative data from regional agencies and local authorities. But for what purpose exactly?
Regardless of whether we're doing online banking, researching new markets, working in the cloud, or simply surfing, we're at risk of becoming a victim of hackers. IT departments take extensive steps to protect data, networks, and devices, but in an era of BYOD and increasingly sophisticated cybercriminals, employees also have to safeguard themselves.
A few months ago, my phone rang unusually late. Somebody at a company for which I had access to the intranet told me, with panic in his voice, that there'd been a hacker attack. It was difficult to see how much damage had been done, he told me, and so IT had decided to take the entire internal network offline.
During the world’s biggest entertainment trade show, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year, pundits agreed that cloud gaming was the future. In fact, it could overtake traditional gaming by 2020.
The new Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) initiative of operators is being run out of Europe's ETSI and not here in the United States, even though the issues have been here for five years. The US needs to step up; otherwise, it's surrendering leadership.
Jane Williams, technology training manager for Multnomah County, says the ability to share resources is just one of the coming benefits of moving the county's intranet to a Drupal Commons platform hosted in the cloud.
Healthcare providers have been moving to telemedicine treatments, where the patient and doctor can meet online, but insurance carriers are not required to pay for such treatments. This may change, though, as Maryland recently passed a law mandating that insurers pay up.
US counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke, who came to prominence with his prescient warnings before the 9/11 attacks, tells Smithsonian Magazine the US was responsible for the Stuxnet supersmart worm that attacked parts of nuclear reactors in Iran – and in the process, has given away one of the world's most sophisticated cyberweapons.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
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