Balancing Risks and Benefits in the Cloud
Cloud computing understandably got a lot of attention last week at the RSA conference. Somewhere between the overzealous supporters and the "we'll never use it here" faction we'll find some hint of a hybrid model that combines internal data center and external cloud providers.
Cloud computing is not all or nothing. Some hesitate to put anything in the cloud because of security concerns. That's understandable but it doesn't make sense to say you'll never use the cloud any more than you'd categorize all of your data as private and confidential. Public and less sensitive data may go into the cloud without undo risk. The success of Salesforce.com proves that.
The cloud is in an early stage, not quite a Hobbesian state of nature but close. Ronald Rivest, MIT cryptographer, noted:
Cloud computing sounds so sweet and wonderful and safe... we should just be aware of the terminology, if we go around for a week calling it swamp computing I think you might have the right mindset.
Using the cloud securely will require new best practices but developing those will be worth the effort, especially for SMBs that might not have the resources to stay on top of in-house server security management.
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