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Please contact:
Jeff Claudino
Director of Sales, Insider Research Services
619-229-9940
or via email at:
claudino@lightreading.com |
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| Cloud Services Fly Into Some Security Turbulence |
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Cloud computing – which allows companies to outsource some or all of their processing tasks to commercial providers – is a hot market in terms of its size, growth rates, and provider interest. But the nature of cloud computing services makes security a particular concern for customers. Any time data and/or processing is not under a company's direct control, people start to worry.
Although there are various certifications and tests based on different criteria and requirements, there is no universally recognized method to verify adequate security from any provider. However, the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), launched in April 2009, is working to establish a broad set of criteria. Its efforts, though, are still at too early a stage to serve as practical assessment tools for potential cloud computing customers.
Cloud computing is particularly attractive as a result of the still-difficult economic climate. It allows companies to quickly add or subtract computing capacity in response to uncertain market conditions. It also lets them avoid major upfront expenditures on equipment in favor of monthly fees. Cloud computing also often lets them get by with less staff IT expertise than if they were doing their computing in-house, particularly when the applications involved are highly specialized.
Ensuring security is even more important in cloud computing models than in traditional ones. Moving processing and data off-premises represents a significant loss of control for companies, which makes them doubly concerned about ensuring that those activities are secure. Thus for the market to reach its full potential, providers will have to put security assurance front and center. But cloud security is a tremendously complicated topic, because it adds so many issues beyond the already-challenging ones with which IT managers have always had to deal.
There is no quick or obvious way to make sure that cloud computing customers not only feel but actually know that their data and processing are secure. But there is an obvious way to speed progress toward that goal: an intensive effort to educate and inform customers about the issues and their solutions. The CSA is doing so on an organizational level, but individual providers have to do the same. As they do so, it will become clear that communication about cloud computing security is a security tool itself.
Cloud Services Fly Into Some Security Turbulence examines the approaches cloud computing service providers take when engaging their customers on security issues. It describes the growing interest in cloud computing and the reasons behind this interest; it also outlines a set of categories into which cloud computing services and their providers fall. The report explains why security is more crucial in cloud computing than in enterprise computing. It also lists key cloud computing security issues and explains the most effective ways of dealing with these issues, offering specific examples from providers. Finally, this report surveys the security approaches of a representative sample of providers.
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| Sample research data from the report is shown in the excerpts below: |
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 Table of Contents (hri0710toc_2.pdf) |
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| By quantitative and qualitative measures, the cloud computing market is strong and growing stronger. Different market analysts peg 2009 revenues at between $7.5 billion and $7.8 billion, and project growth to between $12.5 billion and $14 billion in 2014. Others report that nearly half of private-sector IT executives are using or actively researching the use of cloud computing services. The following excerpt examines the main cloud computing service models and provides examples of each. |
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| [click on the image above for the full excerpt] |
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 Cloud computing providers surveyed in this report include: Amazon Web Services LLC; AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T); GoGrid Cloud Hosting; Google (Nasdaq: GOOG); IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM); Joyent Inc.; Rackspace Hosting Inc. (NYSE:RAX); Savvis Inc. (Nasdaq: SVVS); Terremark Worldwide Inc. (Nasdaq: TMRK); VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW); and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ). |
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| Total pages: 24 |
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| AUGUST 2010 |
 Telecom New Entrants |
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| AUGUST 2010 |
| Policy Control |
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| * Calendar subject to change |
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| "I like the detailed reviews and comparisons of products. ... It's a great reference tool." |
| - Derek Sheeler, Analyst, Olayan Group |
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| "Great service that combines the information I need/want to know, in a concise format that doesn’t require me to set aside valuable time digging through a lot of filler." |
| - Barry Kantner, Vice President, World Wide Packets |
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