Cloud computing: Security threats and next-generation firewalls

Grazed from NetworkAsia.  Author:  Sharat Sinha.

Cloud computing encompasses an increasingly broad array of uses from applications to data services, virtualization, software and platform as a service. However, instead of viewing the cloud as the utopia IT architecture for all enterprises, the cloud is in fact one of multiple options towards a more efficient, responsive and available IT infrastructure. Rather than an immediate migration, there’s still a lot to do in terms of data center consolidation, segmentation, securing your virtualized infrastructure, and safely enabling data center applications.

Within Asia Pacific, and as reported by CNC Data and the Synergy Research Group, corporate spending on cloud and data centre infrastructure reached almost US$10 billion in 2012, a 21 per cent increase from 2011. The adoption and expansion of cloud, mobile, and wireless technologies have also created new and different threats to the network, therefore increasing the scope of the IT security products market…

Based on the Asia Pacific Application Usage and Threat Report from Palo Alto Networks, findings show that application vulnerability exploits target high-value business applications.² Hence, the real security risk lies with a clutch of 9 popular applications that accounted for 98 per cent of all software exploits, where 7 of these applications are internal/ infrastructure applications (databases, Active Directory, RPC, etc.)…

Read more from the source @ http://networksasia.net/article/cloud-computing-security-threats-and-next-generation-firewalls-1375403839