Public clouds are powerful but dangerous tools. Used incorrectly, public clouds expose enterprises to risks of data loss and legal and regulatory liabilities.
But smart management makes it possible to get the benefits of public clouds while minimizing risks, and that's the subject of the latest Big Report from Internet Evolution: Look Out! The Biggest Dangers of Public Clouds.
As enterprises move to adopt public clouds, they may enjoy increased efficiencies, cost savings, and streamlined business processes. However, they also face risks.
The cloud presents its own security challenges. The multiplicity of components in the cloud environment presents a big attack surface. And the ease of access from a variety of devices and locations -- one of the great benefits of the cloud -- creates a proliferation of points from which an attacker can breach the network.
And enterprises run into problems when they allow business managers to set up their own cloud agreements -- so-called "rogue clouds" -- without the blessing of IT. Business managers go rogue because they want immediate cloud benefits, but IT needs to move slowly and deliberately to find solutions that are secure, stable, and comply with regulations.
Other problems arise during contract contract negotiations. Companies run into problems when they fail to negotiate favorable pricing, terms of data access, and service level agreements with their cloud service providers. Companies ignore security basics such as access management and encryption.
And enterprises aren't at risk from their own behavior alone. The nature of public clouds means that enterprises are sharing server hardware. In these multi-tenant environments, a single irresponsible organization creates risk for its virtual neighbors. Enterprises need to take steps to ensure their virtual machines are adequately isolated from neighbors and understand how cloud providers are protecting integrity.
Minimizing cloud risks is a tough job -- but it's feasible. And we're here to help with our latest Big Report. Read the sections in order, or just dive in and start anywhere:
Sharon, I mean that banks and financial services companies would be among the last to more core apps from their own servers to IaaS or PaaS. Not just filesharing, but actually running apps externally.
what is it you mean? Dropbox/Box et al.? or something else?
The problem is, if business feels they need this, and IT makes it too hard to get, they'll just do it anyway. So just issuing edicts on Thou Shalt Not aren't going to work.
I'd expect that banks would be among the last companies to subscribe to the cloud for mission-critical applications. Their security demands are too high.
I had occassion to speak to an IT security expert recently who works for a company that hosts web services for a number of large banks. He has investigated the public cloud option for his company but found the cloud service providers were unwilling to guarantee his company for financial losses. His business is contractually obligated to guarantee the banks it does business with against security breaches and the related financial losses that may ensue to the tune of many millions of dollars. If the cloud operators can't guarantee against financial loss, they're not going to earn the trust or the business of many of these large organizations.
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Before entrusting bet-your-business applications to the cloud, organizations need to ensure that service providers guarantee the apps will be available. The key to doing that is a strong Service Level Agreement (SLA).
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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.
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