The impact of the cloud on your network (part 2): Security

Grazed from ITProPortal. Author: Editorial Staff.

In our previous feature in this series, we looked at the network infrastructure implications of adopting cloud-based services for your company. But there are more issues than just whether the bandwidth and latency levels on your network are up to the job. Unless you implement a private cloud, your employees will be accessing services that are hosted externally. Even with a private cloud, mobile workers will be accessing this from outside the office. So the perimeter line between the internal network and the Internet will be much more porous.

You can’t outsource accountability

Implementing cloud services is often an exercise in outsourcing, and whilst you can outsource responsibility, you can’t outsource accountability. There are different levels of cloud provision, each with their own particular security needs:…

• Cloud services can operate at the application level, for example Google Docs. This is usually called Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
• Alternatively, there are provisions where you supply your own applications to run on a cloud-based delivery mechanism, such as Microsoft Azure or Google App Engine. Here, the cloud operates as a platform, so is known as Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS).
• Finally, you can merely use the cloud as infrastructure for your own platforms and software, such as Amazon EC2. This is generally referred to as Infrastructure-as-a-Service…

Read more from the source @ http://www.itproportal.com/2014/03/17/impact-cloud-your-network-part-2-security/#ixzz2wE1LRws6

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