Experts calm cloud security concerns

Experts calm cloud security concerns

Security issues relating to cloud computing are over exaggerated and often misconceived, according to a panel of experts.

Appearing at an annual RSA conference in San Francisco at the end of February, a selection of cloud practitioners were keen to stress that if due diligence is taken then the cloud is a perfectly safe option for any organisation. Specifically, they stated that companies should not be deterred from migrating data or systems into public cloud environments, which are often touted as being very unsafe.

Wade Baker, managing principal of research and intelligence at Verizon, stated that the view of the cloud as being inherently insecure is simply wrong. Moreover, the panel said that the benefits of cloud computing – not just for cost savings but also for greater agility and flexibility, or as a platform for innovation – far outweigh these lingering security concerns.

Nevertheless, companies that are yet to embrace cloud technologies still point to security concerns as the main inhibiting factor; Computerworld pointed out: “An Intermap survey of 250 decision makers at medium and large companies found that 40 per cent of those who described themselves as "cloud-wary" cited security as their biggest impediment to adoption. In contrast only about 15 per cent of "cloud-wise" respondents felt the same way.”

Migrating business critical applications into the cloud, or using the cloud to store sensitive data, has often been a worrying process for businesses that are new to the technology. However, the panel said, if cloud providers are properly vetted to meet specific demands then there is no reason to doubt the security of cloud solutions.

Some of the advice offered at the conference was to carefully consider which data is moved into the cloud; if you properly classify it then you can choose which data you put into the cloud, explained Google Apps’ director of security, Eran Feigenbaum.

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