Why you shouldn’t worry about security in the cloud.

Over the years your organisation has made the transition from the filing cabinet in the corner, to the computer with all the files stored on it, to a network of PCs throughout the business, and maybe even to hosting some applications with a provider. So why on earth would you trust this precious data that you have nursed all the way through those painful transitions to be thrown into the cloud and risk it vapourising?

Cloud security is not the big scary monster that people are making it out to be. With a few sensible precautions and some understanding of the environment I believe you can transition data to the cloud now with a reasonable degree of safety.

Just remember that most of the fear and doubt about cloud computing is being driven by hardware and software vendors who would really rather you kept paying for boxes and licence fees to keep all of your data within your own environment. The current serious concerns about cloud security are actually common to almost all IT environments today, not just the cloud: confidentiality of data, integrity of data and availability of data.

Once data is out in the cloud, only authorised users should have access to it, to ensure its confidentiality. Then only authorised transactions from those authorised users will ensure the data’s integrity. Lastly, availability speaks for itself: there’s no point in having the data if you can’t access it! Availability and ownership of data across geographically distinct areas and different legislative environments is usually the main argument raised about cloud computing security. However, for the sake of discussion, how about we turn it around and instead of looking at only the negatives, let’s look at the benefits to security of using cloud services.

Security testing: Because you are using shared infrastructure, you will be getting exceptionally high-quality security testing done by your cloud provider, but only a fraction of the costs will be passed on to you. You will also get better, faster reporting and incident logging to go along with that.

Centralised data: If your data is in one spot, it can’t really go wandering. Most security breaches happen through simple theft of laptops and PCs, or internal breaches when staff download software or computers become infected by viruses. Can you really be certain that every machine with data on it is completely clean and has only the approved software on it? If your data lived in the cloud, this would reduce the risk of it disappearing as easily as a laptop off a desk or out of a car. Central storage of data also means you have just one place to focus your monitoring. Would you rather defend just one castle or spread yourself over several? Monitoring is much easier when you have a narrow focus.

Easier configuration, faster deployment and better testing: You can start with a clean slate in a cloud environment and create the secure build that you want with less worries over legacy systems. After that, it’s all about cloning those virtual machines as you need them. Your security patches are taken care of at the infrastructure level by your cloud provider all at the same time.

So how should you go about ensuring you are getting the best security features out of your cloud provider? Keep an eye on organisations like the Cloud Security Alliance (www.cloudsecurityalliance.org), which provides independent security best practices for cloud computing. Talk to your ICT provider about its plans for managing cloud systems and helping you with transitions from your existing environment up to the cloud. Your account manager should be willing to work with you to find the optimum place for your data to reside.

Cloud computing is not a fringe discussion any more; it’s an emerging technology practice, so questions about security are perfectly reasonable. Don’t be put off by the scaremongering that exists in an early market. Take time to consider the security issues that keep you up at night at the moment, and how moving some of your data to the cloud could lead to a more restful sleep!