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News flash - the Cloud is probably better than your data center
6 comments- TAGS:Cloud, data center, encryption, insider attack, security
- IT TOPICS:Enterprise Software & Services, SaaS & Cloud Computing, Security, Servers & Data Center
It might depend on what dimension you're talking about, but in at least some dimensions, I'm confident the capabilities of many cloud providers far outpace our everyday data center capabilities.
The industry continues to buzz about a seemingly endless bucket of security concerns in the cloud, but 9 times out of 10 seems to miss the most obvious conclusion. A real security assessment would likely turn up evidence that the cloud is a good bit more secure than your data center. James Niccolai caught a story at a recent conference from one CIO (Doug Menefee, CIO at Schumacher Group) who had a great perspective.
The thing is, the cloud has about 100 times fewer attack vectors than that data sitting inside your data center. Easy physical access? No. Thousands of services running on the network with little visibility into what they are? No. Rogue access points? No. Disgruntled employees? Maybe, but they're not yours, and probably have sweeter targets than your data. The cloud is pretty much down to one attack vector - over the wire.
Meanwhile, data centers in the cloud are more likely to give you access to better security mechanisms than you could ever cost-effectively deploy and manage in your own data center -- ranging from authentication and access control to intrusion detection to file-level encryption and multi-location distribution.
Every day we're seeing new approaches to slicing and dicing data, encrypting data, distributing data, and adding multiple layers of services to cloud infrastructures all in the name of better securing and obscuring data. It is starting to look like cloud security could easily outstrip the best secret government program the most paranoid spy agency novelist could ever think of. Moreover, through some careful investigation, you can find the right service in the right place where you are more likely to get better detection of potential and real security issues, and better guarantees that any issues or breaches will be disclosed to you. Take a good look at your data center. Are you confident about your level of detection, and that your coworkers, reports, or other employees will identify and disclose problems every day?
Personally, I'd put my money on the cloud securing my data way before at least as many as half of the data centers I've toured or worked in.
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