Rack Pack Blog

All for One Cloud and One Cloud for All

Posted by Rack Packer - 19/07/10 at 03:07:28 pm

Today has seen the vision of an open source cloud move one step closer with the launch of the OpenStack project.

 

The project has the backing of over 25 leading technology companies and NASA, and is designed to foster the emergence of technology standards and cloud interoperability. The project’s key aim is to enable anyone to turn physical hardware into scalable and extensible cloud environments. OpenStack is not itself a cloud provider, rather it is a software offering that lets the end user build a cloud, either for public or private use.

 

An OpenStack Design Summit was held July 13-16 in Austin, where more than 100 technical advisors, developers and founding members joined to validate the code and ratify the project roadmap.  Much of the code tested is written in Python, using the Tornado and Twisted frameworks.

 

 An open cloud is essential if the long promised benefits of cloud computing are to be fully realised. The success of the cloud will be ultimately determined by the levels of choice and freedom that it offers the end user. Choice and freedom equals innovation, flexibility and usability. An open cloud will provide the tools to enable end users to build and customise their own computing clouds to suit their specific needs, budgets and timescales. And more importantly no one or entity owns it.

 

The internet would not be what it is today, had it not been built on open and interoperable standards. The cloud’s success will be driven by a global connected community delivering applications and media using a cloud that fosters creativity and openness. A truly open cloud will encourage tomorrow’s innovators to innovate today.

 

The industry does not want, or need, a digital sky dominated by proprietary clouds from a few deep pocketed large computing brands, it needs to ensure that people have a diversity of potential suppliers of cloud-based services – competition is healthy and needed.

 

It is a theme that Joaquín Almunia, vice president of the European Commission, strongly voiced earlier this month when he stated: “Fostering openness and preventing closed markets and unfair competition is key to the development of innovative digital media and technology in Europe. Open and interoperable environments drive down the cost of innovation.”

 

For the cloud to be truly ‘open’ code standardisation is a fundamental requirement, one of the key aims for OpenStack, and the reason so many founder member ‘competing’ companies have put aside their traditional rivalries, is to establish a common standard base.

 

It is essential that end users enjoy total interoperability, making it easier for them to connect clouds together, moving data between and off them when they choose – rather than being locked in to one providers cloud.  

 

If end user needs to change providers, and sometimes this can be an enforced choice: a merger or acquisition or as a result of a new regulation; they need to be able to do so easily. Resources that may have been spent on difficult migrations can instead be spent on core business development.

 

One of the value propositions of the open cloud model is the ability to scale resources as needed. An open interface will enable end users to build out new and existing systems at speed and with agility. And if we look at perhaps the biggest perceived barrier to cloud adoption, the issue of security and data integrity, we can see that the open source model enables the end user to take advantage of a commercial partner’s scale and infrastructure, whilst tailoring the code to ensure that their valuable assets don’t leave the in house environment.  The true hybrid cloud.

 

In essence the OpenStack project is attempting to deliver a type of co-operative cloud that enables economies of scale to build whilst returning control back to the community that built it. In theory OpenStack could extend the benefits of open source into the full computing stack and that could result in the largest single cloud ecosystem next to the Web itself. A claim too far? Only time will tell.

 

Finally, OpenStack should not be confused with the ‘Open Cloud Manifesto’ initiative that was heralded with much fanfare in March 2009. This saw IBM lead dozens of major tech companies in calling for open cloud standards. However the call was not heeded by all the perceived major cloud players, with rival Microsoft Corp dismissing the effort and accusing IBM of seeking to exert control of the field, whilst Amazon.com Inc and Google Inc, Salesforce.com Inc were all conspicuously absent from a list of companies endorsing it.

 

So what’s different with OpenStack? OpenStack is attempting to build interoperability in public, not behind closed doors, and without any exclusionary practices. Such environments are not conducive to building trust and a spirit of co-operation, both of which are key ingredients of developing a successful standard.

 

Oh and yes and with OpenStack you can actually download the code now.

Oil’s well for Green IT or are we chasing a broken pipe dream?

Posted by Rack Packer - 16/06/10 at 03:06:29 pm

Green issues and spills have been dominating the headlines this week (and surprisingly not all of them refer to the performance of a certain English goalkeeper). From the Gulf of Mexico Oil disaster and ensuing diplomatic fall out, to the news that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched its Energy Star program for data centers and an analysis of the economic impact of the American Power Act (APA), released by Senators Kerry and Lieberman mid-May.

 

It is no surprise that much of the coverage of this week has focused on the need to move away from our dependence on fossil fuels- to break our oil addiction - to ‘cleaner’ renewable energy sources and the need for us to use the energy that we consume more efficiently and effectively.

 

President Obama in his first Oval Office address appeared to use the public outrage over the Gulf’s oil crisis to leverage momentum for his personal goal of a greener energy future. He laid out his plans to deal with BP and then exhorted his countrymen to embark on a mission to reduce their reliance on fossil fuel. A task which may not be as farfetched as it appears on the surface, if the results of the EPA study are to be believed.

 

The EPA analysis concluded that the APA is not only affordable, but a worthy investment. For a relatively modest sum, between 22 to 40 cents per day through 2050, American households would be able to fund the creation of clean energy jobs, a reduction in the dependence on oil and protection of the planet, and polls suggest that this might be palatable to US residents. And apparently it’s not just householders that are showing broad support for the need to act on climate change.

 

A survey undertaken amongst the SME community by the Small Business Majority, a research, education and advocacy organization, showed that 61 percent of small businesses surveyed, agree that a move to clean energy can restart the economy and help small businesses create jobs, and that half of the small businesses support clean energy and climate legislation.

 

Which is all fine and dandy, voicing our support (or lack of it) for a greener world in a telephone interview is a lot easier than actually doing something tangible. And herein lies the problem – what exactly can we do or what should we be doing and how will we benefit? If we are serious about changing the way we currently operate, then we need to break the mould, challenge and change our entrenched business practises and actually stop talking the talk and start walking the walk.

 

As a huge guzzler of energy, the IT industry often finds itself an easy Green target, hence the introduction of the EPAs Energy Star scheme. In the US, for example, data centres consumed less than 1% of total US electricity use in 2000, but that will rise to at least 2.3% of all electricity used nationwide this year, according to the Uptime Institute. Figures in other parts of the world are comparable.

 

IT departments therefore share a huge task to implement the changes that will reverse this trend. When you broach this topic with companies, most IT professionals and executives will state that they are genuinely concerned about their IT departments’ impact on the environment – or are at least interested in the economic benefits of being more energy efficient.

 

Yet in a BPM Forum survey, while 86% of respondents said IT organisations have a “responsibility to substantially improve efficiency and green activities”, only 41% had any specific green plans in place. “The biggest overarching message,” Derek Kober, director BPM Forum stated, “was that, despite concern and despite increasing priorities for improving the environment and greening the data centre, IT departments in general are pretty far behind.”

 

This is a view shared by Forrester Research analyst James Staten who stated in the current edition of Green IT Magazine that “IT administrators define green from the hard currency perspective, rather than something that is environmental. They don’t really make a lot of decisions around what’s environmentally responsible or not.” In its last quarterly review, ‘Green progress in enterprise IT’, research conducted by Forrester showed that 38% of enterprises now include respect for the environment among their evaluation criteria and 55% of them put cost reduction at the top of their list of priorities.

 

At the same time, while green IT has become a very topical subject, it seems there are a range of views about what constitutes ‘green IT. On the one hand, there is the argument that it is primarily a bottom-line focused activity that also helps save the planet. On the other hand, there is the view that almost every new initiative nowadays has been ‘green washed’ and that not nearly enough is being done to actually improve our planet’s condition.

 

Separating green facts from green fiction often results in inaction. With so much green spin and misinformation out there, it’s little wonder that many organisations have become sceptical of green technology, not because of any indifference to the plight of the environment, but because they are not at all sure who to trust. Which green products and solutions really are green? And, even if you are sure of the authenticity of the environmental claims being made by certain vendors on behalf of their own particular offerings, how sure can you be that they are operating within a green supply chain?

 

“Green IT has to be about more than presenting a nice picture to the market or senior management,” stated research outfit Redemtech president Robert Houghton. “It has to be sustainable, both environmentally and financially. That requires applying the same processes and discipline to these programmes as are used in other areas of the business.”

 

One thing we do not need is more rhetoric. According to research by the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University oil demand is now outstripping supply and we need to invest quickly in alternative energy sources. Kuwaiti Scientists have recently released a report which found that worldwide conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014, years earlier than anticipated and that the world’s oil reserves are being depleted at a rate of 2.1 percent a year.  A fact not lost on Bill Gates who called this week for the US Government to invest billions of dollars a year in R&D bring about a clean energy revolution. With 80 percent of today’s primary energy demand coming from fossil fuels, we need to start taking action now.

 

In an odd way, the environmental disaster occurring in the Gulf might be the very catalyst that the world needs to wake up and start addressing the very real issues that we face. Even if you do not believe that climate change is a direct result of man’s actions, or that climate change even exists, they’re can be no denying that fossil fuels are a finite resource, and if we are to avoid the situation where we simply can’t power the information super highway, we need to take ‘Green IT’, in all its forms, seriously.

 

What we need is common sense, we need honesty, we need greater investment in green technologies that are economically compelling and more than anything we need to overcome our general inertia. We must not drop this particular ball (unlike a certain English Goalkeeper).

Social Media to score big at the 2010 World Cup

Posted by Rack Packer - 11/06/10 at 11:06:02 am

Business can look, tweet and learn from the impact that social media will have at this year’s World Cup

The World Cup is now upon us and excitement levels are reaching fever pitch across the globe. It is estimated that a billion people will tune in at some stage during the tournament to watch the likes of Messi, Kaka and Drogba light up the magnificent South African stadiums. Many pundits believe (hope?) that this will be the most exciting and memorable World Cup ever staged, and it’s not simply because of the quality of the players on the park. This World Cup is full of firsts.

The first time the tournament has been staged on the African Continent, that 3D broadcast technology has been used and that marketing and broadcasting revenues for a sporting event will top £2bn to give but three. And it will also be the first major sports event that will truly benefit from the digital age.

With the games airing live on cell phones and computers, the World Cup will get more online coverage than any major sporting event ever. Akamai Technologies Inc., estimated to deliver about 20 percent of the world’s Internet traffic, expects World Cup traffic to be two or three times as heavy as that measured during President Barack Obama’s inauguration — thus far, the high point for traffic volume at about 1 terabit, or 1 trillion bits of data, per second.

And this will be the first world cup where every kick, decision, goal and team selection will be debated globally using social media. (Even Sepp Blatter the 74 year old FIFA President has opened his own Twitter account in time for today’s opening ceremony.)

For those of us involved in the technology industry for the past decade, the rise of the phenomenon that is social media is not that surprising. It has long been predicted that the true power of the internet would be harnessed once its users evolved away from passive browsing to actively participating .

In fact you could argue that the template for social media is centuries old. We humans have been gossiping and sharing ideas since evolution. The difference today is that our technology enables us to communicate our messages around the globe, without face to face interaction, instantly.

Gradually social networking will impact on almost every role, in every kind of company. It is no longer a fad and is already changing the rules of the marketplace meaning that companies need to embrace it whether they feel comfortable with it or not.

Boardrooms across the land have often taken a ‘Marmite’ approach to social media – they either love it or hate it. However interacting online has now snowballed to such an extent that it can no longer be dismissed by businesses as a ‘not for me thank you.’

It is estimated that Facebook now has 400 million users and serves 6 million pages per day (a staggering 37.4 trillion per annum). The ‘net’ now houses 126 million blogs and 27.3 million tweets are sent and over 1 billion YouTube videos are viewed on a daily basis. If you thought this was limited to the young, bored or the geek, then think again. The professional networking site LinkedIn now has 65 million members and is growing at a rate of one new member every second.

The statistics are compelling. So, if you want your company to engage with this massive audience, what do you do and how can you make it work for you? The key piece of advice that I can impart is that whilst it might be termed social media and appear to be a completely different world, it is still business and the business rules that apply offline should apply online as well. Corporate risk of litigation, brand protection and legal liabilities still apply in hyperspace!

The first step that companies need to do is to create an holistic social media strategy. They need to decide and be clear on what their objectives are from day one, how they intend to resource and invest in their strategy and whether they are willing to open a two-way dialogue with the outside world. Too many companies have jumped in only to be left bemused by the apparent lack of success they have derived from the exercise. There is a widely held misconception that the domain of social media should be the preserve of the sales and marketing team and that engagement must involve lead generation – this is fundamentally wrong. Social media has the ability to improve processes at all levels and in all departments within an organisation if used properly.

“To listen well is as powerful a means of influence as to talk well and is as essential to all true conversation.”
Nowhere does this old Chinese proverb ring more true than in social media engagement. Don’t dive in, take your time, do your research, understand how other companies are using social media successfully and chose the applications that will serve you best and then determine the ‘tone’ that you wish to adopt. This ‘tone’ is important. It should reflect your organisation’s true personality and should avoid at all costs the ‘me, me, me’ syndrome. You need to talk to the market intelligently and without any marketing speak so people will want to respond. You will need to care about what is being said about your organisation and you will need to be prepared to receive feedback that is negative as well as positive. Above all you must stay consistent and you must persevere. Social media is a daily discipline.

If you use the medium properly you will be able to listen to current customers, new prospects, industry experts and opinion formers and perhaps just as importantly your own employees to ensure your business derives maximum benefit.

Once your strategy is in place, you need to communicate it internally. Draft a corporate social media policy that gives guidelines to employees on how they can best represent their organisation on line. Without making sure your entire staff is on board things can go bad very quickly as Vodafone discovered to its cost recently when an employee tweeted an obscene message via the company’s official Twitter account leading to public outrage. And returning to South Africa, the Netherlands players have been banned from using Twitter during the World Cup after Eljero Elia sparked a racism row with comments on a live streaming video.

Whilst these two examples made the headlines, there is no need for managers to recoil in horror as they imagine what these incidents would have meant for their own organisations. For every toe curling example of bad social media practice there are many thousands of positive stories.

Virgin (again!) received high praise for its ‘Did your driver do a good job today?’ message on the back of its Virgin Wine vans. Rather than the more usual corporate ‘Well driven?’ people were asked to contact the company and provide personal feedback on the driver because ‘There could be something in it for them’ – a perfect example of good business practise through customer engagement and employee reward.

A more jumbo-sized example of this involves hundreds of 5ft fibre glass elephants and London’s largest ever outdoor art festival - the London Elephant Parade. The UK domain names provider Easyspace decided to sponsor one of the elephants that are being displayed around the UK’s capital for the next few weeks. Rather than simply write a sponsorship cheque, Easyspace decided to use social media to maximise its involvement and extend the brand into areas not normally associated with web hosting. Local art students designed the elephant for us, an online campaign to raise awareness of the charitable reason for the Parade was launched, a Facebook page complete with video diary was posted and customers were invited to name the elephant – they chose ‘Cosmos’. All of which has helped change the perception of a brand which traditionally operates in the rather dry IT arena.

Finally the biggest question that is often asked of companies engaged in social media is, how do you measure its value? What is its ROI? The simple answer is that there is no simple answer. To get a community ROI requires work and effort. You have to track down data from a variety of sources some of which you will have no direct control or access to. Obvious data sources include web site analytics, sales lead sources and membership details but you also need to widen your search to include blogs, referrer pages, reviews, videos, fans, tweets and PR rankings, some of which can be measured using tools such as Howsociable?, Omgili and Tweetbeep. The key is recognising that processes must be in place internally to ensure that all data is captured and analysed.

Sometimes though you will just know when something has worked. I leave you with the story of Boeing and a young boy who loves airplanes.

Harry Winsor had sent Boeing a crayon drawing of a plane he had designed with a letter suggesting the company might consider manufacturing it. What he received back was a standard legal letter saying Boeing could not accept unsolicited ideas. Harry’s father, an ad agency executive, recounted all this on his blog and Twitter feed.

Boeing, who had only been using Twitter for two weeks, picked up the tweet and responded admitting “We’re expert at airplanes but novices in social media. We’re learning as we go.”

From being criticised for its original corporate response Boeing turned its mistake into a positive. It has spoken to Harry and promised better internal processes for handling submissions from children.

As Harry’s father said: “It was just so cool to see a company become kind of human.”

And that is what social media is all about.

Footnote: If you want to get close to the footy action , here’s a handy list of verified Twitter accounts of various World Cup players including Anelka, Iniesta, Donovan, Aguero and Forlan)

Plenty of spare storage capacity up in the Cloud

Posted by Rack Packer - 12/05/10 at 05:05:31 pm

 Let cloud storage control your data before it controls you.

“Terabyte storage? That’s so last decade Darling. This year’s black is the zettabyte.”

For us luddites still mourning the loss of the 1.44MB (2.0MB unformatted) disk, the thought of the zettabyte is truly terrifying (although pretty handy for Scrabble).

The zettabyte is equal to 1 billion terabytes and according to IDC, in its latest global digital output report, the world’s generated data volume is expected to pass through the magic zettabyte figure for the first time later this year going on to exceed 35 zettabytes by 2020. (A zettabyte is estimated to be roughly half a million times the entire collections of all the academic libraries in the United States, or for Jack Bauer fans, a full-length episode of FOX TV’s hit series “24″ running continuously for 125 million years.)

As IT becomes ever more prevalent in every aspect of our lives, the amount of data generated and stored is growing at an astounding rate. It is estimated that 45GB of data currently exists for each person on the planet and that this will grow annually by a factor of 44 from 2009 to 2020, as all major forms of media complete their transformation from analog to digital.

Or to put it another way, it is estimated that the bytes of data generated by digital cameras, mobile phones, enterprise IT systems and devices will equal the number of grains of sand on the world’s beaches within the next year or two. And whilst 85 percent of this data is predicted to come from consumers snapping photos, surfing Web pages and sending e-mail, about 60 percent of that data will still enter and cross corporate networks. Simply put, 35% more digital information is created today than the capacity exists to store it.

Over the next few years, businesses will face tough decisions on how to store, find and access information whilst complying with regulations. Much of the data is unstructured, unmarked and resides in a variety of disparate locations, makes it almost impossible to retrieve and use.

This unprecedented growth in data volumes is having a significant effect on many businesses, with the most obvious impact being ongoing operational costs, performance and compliance.

And this is where the cloud may find its true calling. For a couple of years now, the industry has been touting the concept of cloud hosting as the ‘knight in white armour’ that promises to transform the way we operate in the future, whilst secretly praying it doesn’t pan out to be ‘a nerd in tin foil’.

Companies that are following the classic ‘strategy by bandwagon’ approach to business have not exactly been backward in slapping the word ‘cloud’ over any product that has an internet association - in the hope that they’ll mop up. This marketing approach has resulted in mixed messages and confusion, with cloud computing being hailed and jeered in equal measure. Deriving obvious benefits from cloud computing has not always been apparent to the market.

Data Storage represents a really viable utilisation of the cloud. It is very clear that the volume of data is going to keep growing and companies need to address this demand. IDC reports that the number of files, images, records and other digital information containers will grow by a factor of 67, each needing to be managed, secured and protected.

Organisations face a stark choice. Do they invest, and continue to invest,  in hardware and software - King Canute style? Can they re-engineer their business processes to cope with the additional data demands without increasing labour costs? (Interestingly the IDC state that IT professionals globally will only grow by a factor or 1.4 despite the data deluge) Or will they simply turn a blindish eye and hope that the various Data Protection Agencies don’t catch up with them?

Cloud computing gives organisations the opportunity to buy ‘peace of mind’. Data storage is a headache and can prove to be a costly one at that. By utilising a cloud service provider’s infrastructure on a demand basis, organisations can rid themselves of the hardware investment and the aggravation. Despite rumours to the contrary, a private cloud model offers a secure data repository that is protected by cast iron service guarantees (and if your service provider can’t provide them – consider looking elsewhere), which can either be used as a standalone option or integrated within existing client infrastructure to form a hybrid solution.

And it’s not just the corporate world that will see cloud storage boon. 2010 ABI Research released this week shows that revenue related to US consumer use of cloud-based backup technology will grow from almost $75 million in 2009 to more than $372 million in 2015, (CAGR of 27.89 percent) - helped by the rise of netbooks and devices such as the iPad.

Cloud storage shouldn’t be that hard a concept to grasp, afterall Man naturally looks to the skies when seeking additional storage and archiving space at home - its called the Loft.

I’m off to get a calculator to work out next year’s craze – the lovvabyte.

Give the cloud a break. Are the fears surrounding cloud computing security justified?

Posted by Rack Packer - 20/04/10 at 10:04:39 am

You couldn’t have escaped cloud stories this past week (quite literally if you’ve attempted to travel across European airspace). Volcanic ash aside, the computing topic that appears to have grabbed the attention concerns the physical security of the cloud, or rather the storing of data on a server somewhere in cyberspace.

Several vendors have stepped forward and launched cloud security products and several respected and authoritative sites such as the BBC and CIO have issued stories on the subject.

“Securing cloud computing is a shared responsibility requiring the active participation of cloud providers,” stated Jim Reavis, Executive Director, Cloud Security Alliance in one release. Adam Gross, senior vice president of marketing for Dropbox said the cloud needs the trust of users, a theme mirrored by Mike Elgan from Computerworld.com who warned users against being too trusting of their cloud provider.

And the BBC revealed that with so many students becoming ever reliant on free collaborative online tools, some colleges have gone as far as banning cloud computing completely. This is not entirely new information. Back in December 2009, a survey revealed that as many as three quarters of UK CIOs viewed security issues as a major barrier to adopting cloud computing.

So are there real issues with the cloud and security, will cloud providers have to up their game to gain trust or are we witnessing, as in the case of the colleges, a knee jerk reaction? (or a convenient excuse to get homework in on time!)

The answer is a probable combination of all these scenarios to varying degrees but to imply that the ‘cloud’ is insecure per see sets a dangerous precedent. Data protection is the responsibility of the data owner, simple as. The rules and policies for data protection don’t change because a company opts for using the cloud over other methods.

Way back in June 2008, Gartner issued a report “Assessing the Security Risks of Cloud Computing.”, and stated Cloud computing has “unique attributes that require risk assessment in areas such as data integrity, recovery, and privacy, and an evaluation of legal issues in areas such as e-discovery, regulatory compliance, and auditing”. But are these not issues that any business will face when securing their data, cloud or otherwise?

James Staten, a Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, makes this point in his piece for CIO “Security ultimately rests with you, the business - not the cloud provider”.

Indeed, there are some specifics that need addressing with cloud, such as determining the physical location of the servers to ensure that certain data does not reside outside of certain geographic boundaries, but overall the approach to using cloud should be the same as using your own infrastructure. And even this is not an insurmountable barrier. Perhaps it is inevitable that the hype surrounding cloud computing has left many with the impression that the cloud is some vaporous computing magic that hovers above the globe. It’s not.

The cloud is physically hosted in data centres and these data centres are in known locations. The fears raised around cloud security appear to be driven by a lack of distinction, or understanding, about the differences between public and private clouds. If you are seeking cast iron guarantees over the security and location of your data assets then you simply ensure that your cloud provider meets your requirements via the SLA and contract.

Sydney Water CIO Tim Catley made this point in an article with the Australian when stating that his organisation did use cloud services, and that the agreement with the provider involved knowing where information was stored. “We do have a major enterprise component that we run (in the cloud) and we know where that data sits, and we’ve been assured that the data sits there and it’s contractually written into the agreement. It’s in Australia and it has to be in New South Wales for us. So we know where that system is.”

And this example debunks another myth surrounding cloud. You can chose to use a provider that offers full SLA’s including high availability and uptime guarantees etc with cloud computing.

Another argument suggests that the real, and key, fear factor for a CIO when considering cloud appears to be loss of direct control. When the company’s assets are safe in his or her own datacentre, managed by the company’s own employees, on systems that are directly managed then the creation of an audit trail and accountability is far simpler. The control remains with the CIO. In the cloud environment it is perceived that much of this control is outsourced, but none of the accountability.

But this argument is hardly armour plated. As this latest example of a major security breach illustrates, you can have the best systems in place but you can’t legislate for human error.

Last week a journalist with the Register (major influential UK IT news portal) received a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, which was not encrypted or password protected, containing the full names and dates of birth of 10,006 people in jobs or applying for jobs where a UK Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) disclosure is required. The journalist received this file in error from a member of Gwent Police Force’s CID Data Management Unit who had used his/her email client’s auto complete function when sending the file by email to five colleagues (one colleague having a similar name to the journalist, whose address had been auto stored after two previous pieces of correspondence).

Amongst the many questions this example raises are: Why was the file not encrypted? Why was the file emailed? Why so many recipients in the cc field? The fallout from this latest high profile security breach is only just beginning and is set to run and run, but it clearly highlights that it is not the technology at fault but poor security practise.

In fact deploying cloud architecture in this case, could have prevented this situation from arising. The data files could have been held centrally, accessed via a secure dedicated connection, only accessible to authorised individuals, and only certain data sets visible and all fully monitored for audit purposes.

Rather than scare mongering about security in the cloud, perhaps we would do better to remind businesses of their responsibilities and obligations in this area generally, after all keeping managing and maintaining data locally is fraught with hazards and risk.

Adopting a workable and failsafe data and security policy must be the starting point for any business. What data do you need, how do you collect it, how do you store it, who has access rights, how do your retrieve it, how do you protect it and what do you do should disaster strike? Once an organisation has determined its policy it can then consider its execution, and cloud can play an important role in this strategy.

Today’s cloud technology allows us to encrypt, back up and store critical data securely, relatively easily and cost effectively delivering significant opex and capex cost savings (an important factor given that data growth rates are doubling every two years with IDC estimating that 45GB of data currently exists for each person on the planet: a staggering 281 billion gigabytes in total.)

No one should claim that moving to the cloud suits everyone or that it is easy, the concept of successfully implementing a tiered infrastructure has baffled organisations for years, but this shouldn’t mean it’s benefits are dismissed out of hand for the sake of eye catching headlines. The arguments for cloud computing are too compelling to ignore but we need to ensure that the hype - both good and bad - doesn’t saddle it with too many misconceptions that prevent businesses from making informed choices.

Security is a major concern but it should be a major concern for any organisation no matter what it’s IT infrastructure, policies and practises.