The risks and rewards of cloud computing

Grazed from Telegraph.uk. Author: Editorial Staff.

Frequently Asked Questions on cloud computing

Q: Why should we be doing business in the cloud?

A: Businesses are increasingly investing in cloud computing services because they offer resources such as networks, servers, applications and data storage without having to directly manage the systems that deliver them…

These systems are delivered over the internet, managed by the provider and sold on demand. As a result, businesses can invest in a wider, more scaleable and targeted range of services. The flexibility of users being able to log-in from any computer also suits the way many companies now do business.

Danilo Labovic, managing director EMEA for TRUSTe

Q: Can I trust my cloud provider?

A: When moving to a cloud provider you outsource a large amount of control over your systems and data. However, you cannot outsource the legal accountability for data security. You need to assure yourself of the quality of data protection at your provider, the standards for identity and access management for internal access and the type of encryption that is on offer.

Rik Ferguson, director of research and communications at Trend Micro

Q: Will the cloud save me money?

A: By outsourcing infrastructure resources to a managed hosting and utility computing provider such as Amazon, Memset or Rackspace, from whom you can rent anything from a virtual machine to a fully disaster-proof server cluster without upfront costs and with short-term contracts, businesses are able to avoid capital expenditure and save money on their ongoing infrastructure costs.

Kate Craig-Wood, managing director of Memset

Q: Do the security risks of storing data in the cloud outweigh its benefits?

Cloud-based services have many benefits and one of the biggest is actually the security. In general, cloud-based service providers have a very high, and in many cases even higher, security level than what most companies have in their own IT systems.

As a business, you need to ensure that your security systems are constantly updated and reassessed. There is, undoubtedly, a need to educate your employees on how to safely store, access and share their data to mitigate potential security risks, and this is true for both the cloud and internal IT systems.

Johan Zetterström, chief executive of Projectplace

Q: Why is cloud computing so significant for SMEs?

A: Cloud computing can allow all organisations to reduce their expenditure on IT infrastructure like servers and data centres. But for smaller firms, the transformation of computing into a pay-as-you-go, variable cost utility also levels the playing field.

Just as the world-wide web offers all organisations a global shop window, so cloud computing now allows all sizes of business to access the latest applications and processing power.

Chris Barnatt, professor of computing and future studies at Nottingham University Business School