Data ownership in the cloud: Get it in writing
Moving applications to a cloud computing provider does not mean giving up control of the data — as long as agencies get a guarantee in writing, according to a panel of CIOs representing defense and civilian agencies.
For example, agency managers moving to the cloud have to stipulate upfront in their contracts that ownership of data must remain with the agency, agency CIOs engaged in cloud implementation told attendees at the recent Cloud/Gov 2011 conference.
Time to Take Cloud Security Issues off the Table
When it comes to cloud computing, there is plenty to be concerned about, but the more IT organizations think about security the less likely it is that security should be a major issue.
Right now, cloud security is primarily an issue because better known providers such as Amazon push security responsibility back to the customer. But there are also plenty of cloud computing platforms out there that offer more security than anything an internal enterprise is ever likely to be able to replicate.
Apple patents points to secure cloud storage box
Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, due to be released in the summer, could include a new ‘safety deposit box’ for important and private files, it has been reported.
Patently Apple reports that the aim of the system is twofold – to protect files from unauthorised access and to protect files from loss due to a failure of a storage device.
Beagle Research Selects the Top Marketing Videos
Research and consulting firm Beagle Research Group recently named Salesforce.com one of the first winners of its Short Tale Award, a competition to recognize outstanding use of videos by organizations in their customer service and marketing efforts. Salesforce.com received the grand prize for strategic use of video for, “How to Use Online Marketing for B2B Marketing.”
Cloud computing ‘cuts computer maintenance costs’
Businesses that adopt cloud computing on hosted systems can reduce the amount of money they spend on maintaining their PCs, a technology commentator has said.
Writing for Memeburn, Gareth Bloor said this is one of a number of "clear reasons" why the technology makes good business sense and is no longer "pie in the sky".
He explained keeping files in the cloud can reduce the cost of upgrading computers, the vast majority of which are able to automatically locate the latest software.
We Will Soon Live in a 100 Gbps World
Accommodating Scale-out Architectures in the Cloud
The cloud is all about scale. As enterprises seek to cobble together the resources needed to handle the unrelenting increase in data loads, a ready supply of on-demand IT resources is a welcome development indeed.
Unfortunately, there is a dark cloud to this silver lining. The fact is, there are different ways to scale resources in the physical world, and there are different kinds of application architectures designed to take advantage of different kinds of scale – and these architectures may or may not lend themselves well to a given cloud environment.
Yahoo develops internal cloud-serving engine to boost productivity
Yahoo is developing an internal cloud-serving engine to boost its own productivity, and intends to release the code as an open source this year.
Cloud computing is just outsourcing, says Information Security Forum
Information security professionals should treat cloud computing as they would any other external supplier, according to an analyst at the Information Security Forum.
“Cloud is just outsourcing. You can rely on knowledge of how you do outsourcing to an extent – there is enough there to help you, as long as you remember the seven deadly sins [of cloud computing],” Adrian Davis, principal research analyst at the Information Security Forum, told the (ISC)2 SecureLondon Conference (ISC)2.
According to Davis, there are seven deadly sins that IT professionals and the business as a whole can commit when it comes to cloud security.