Cloud Computing Solutions – Data Security Concerns & Adoption Rates

In a report by Intel Security, Blue Skies Ahead? The State of Cloud Computing, they shared interesting facts on adoption of the cloud and cloud security. Intel’s report shows the recent rapid rate of adoption for cloud computing solutions. In just over a year, the data suggests many US enterprises will set aside 80% of their IT budgets for cloud computing solutions.

The data also showed:

·         13% of organizations trust security in the public cloud with their sensitive data.

·         Companies are on average using 44 cloud services

·         Data stored in the cloud includes:

o   52% business intelligence

o   52% financial accounting

o   48% employee records

o   40% personal information of customers

o   13% not sure

In addition, the report exposed a gap in board-level (CXO) awareness of possible security issues with storing sensitive data in the public cloud. In the US alone, only 38% fully understand the risk which means 62% only partially understand or do not understand the risks involved. Even with a high number of security breaches in recent years, the need for education and awareness is high regarding the risks of storing sensitive data in the public cloud versus private cloud computing.

In a similar report by JP Morgan, their results suggest the data running in the public cloud will grow from 16.2% to 41.3% within five years. With workloads tripling in the public cloud, an architectural shift in technology requirements will be needed to protect and manage sensitive data.

Organizations should plan for the future now by asking questions to develop a cloud computing policy for public and/or private cloud computing.

1.      What external devices using company-approved software should be allowed on the network? In which circumstances will they not be allowed?

2.      What company data can be accessed on an external device or in the cloud?

3.      Which cloud-based applications won’t be allowed?

4.      Which authentication protocols or passwords will be required?

5.      How will IT offer support for using cloud computing solutions and services?

As cloud adoption rates continue to accelerate each year, detailed cloud computing policies and private cloud computing are needed to help counter concerns. This includes the approved use of cloud services in an organization. 

8 Things You Need to Know About Hybrid Cloud Computing Models

The recent rise in cloud adoption rates means it’s more important than over to discover which cloud computing model best fits your organization. Cloud computing consultants are becoming a valuable resource as businesses are searching for better solutions.

Hybrid clouds offer the combined benefits of public and private cloud computing models in an environment designed to meet the specific needs of your company. While this model offers flexibility and added benefits, cloud computing consulting may help you to decide for yourself which cloud computing model fits your unique needs.

A recent report on the hybrid cloud by SolarWinds IT Trends shared these important factors:

·         62% of respondents said security is the biggest challenge of managing current hybrid IT environments.

·         27% think their IT departments have adequate resources to manage a hybrid IT environment.

·         56% say they have the level of support they need from leadership and the overall organization to improve or develop skills to manage hybrid environments better.

·         The top five skills needed to manage hybrid IT environments are:

o   Distributed architectures

o   Service-oriented architectures

o   Application migration

o   Hybrid IT monitoring/management tools and metrics

o   Automation and vendor management

These factors are valuable and align closely with our eight factors for knowing if a hybrid cloud computing model is best for your organization.

1.      Beginning Investment – The investment for each deployment option can vary. On an earlier blog, we offered a comprehensive financial comparison of public and private cloud computing deployments. This included the expected ROI to better understand how your initial IT investment will pay for itself over time.

2.      Length of Data Storage – How long do you store data? Is your industry required to store data for specific time periods?

3.      Data Storage Space – How much data will you store in the cloud? Public clouds make you pay per GB. With private cloud computing, you need to invest in your own resources.

4.      Performance – What needs do you have for your IT infrastructure and how well should it be done? If cloud computing is a core, critical resource, your options should be weighed accordingly.

5.      Confidentiality and Security – Data security can vary across deployment options.

6.      Access Patterns and Locations – Is your business global? This could determine where to locate resources for best performance.

7.      In-House Technical Resources – Are in-house technical resources available to manage private cloud computing?

8.      Service Level Agreements – How critical is “uptime” for your business? How could a cloud outage affect your organization?

As with any IT decisions affecting the whole company, it’s important to choose wisely. Cloud computing consulting may be the answer you’re looking for. Work with cloud computing consultants to make sure you choose the best solution for your organization. 

Benefits of Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)

If you missed it, I posted recently on Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) for Optimal Failover. When Zetta conducted a survey of 300 IT professionals from small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), they discovered 37% of SMBs are using the cloud as part of their disaster recovery solution, up 11% over last year.

TalkinCloud.com published the full results which showed:

·         57% of the SMBs who are planning to add new disaster recovery in the next 12 months plan to leverage cloud-based disaster recovery solutions.

·         84% confirmed several days of downtime in IT would cause moderate to catastrophic costs and losses.

·         33% claimed they rarely test their disaster recovery plan.

·         13% admitted their company doesn’t have a current technical disaster recovery plan in place.

What Is Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)?

DRaaS is the replication and hosting of virtual or physical services by a third-party. In the event of a catastrophe, they provide failover.

While this is quickly becoming a popular, strategic offering with many options available to facilitate DRaaS solutions, keep in mind you must first know how your business operates.

What Do You Need to Know about DRaaS Solutions?

DRaaS solutions expect you to capture the tribal knowledge essential in most IT departments. You must have a plan in place to associate service groups with the services your enterprise delivers.

The cost and effort of doing this are often forgotten by organizations in the mitigation process. Yet, success depends on this being completed properly.

In the post I mentioned at the start of this blog, I discuss using DRaaS for optimal failover, but I caution organizations about the different ways various hosting providers approach DRaaS. Naturally, they have specific goals and offerings based on their own line of products.

As industry standards take form, the process will soon become smoother and easier. An experienced cloud computing consulting partner can be a huge resource for building the best DRaaS solution based on your organization’s specific needs.