Cloud Computing and Congress
Cloud computing is to this decade what the World Wide Web was to the 1990's. A new and unknown giant, cloud computing is growing exponentially to provide services to thousands of companies worldwide. An estimated 80% of companies will be in the cloud in the next few years, and approximately 20% of those will own zero digital assets--all of their servers and storage being in the cloud instead.
So what is the cloud? We've all seen the "To the cloud!" commercials where someone uses their laptop to access a video from their computer half a country away. While that represents one form of cloud computing, it is a little more complicated than that. And that complication is where the problems come in.
Put simply, cloud computing focuses on using multiple servers and computers to store data online in one of many locations, so that it can be accessed by users worldwide. But instead of companies renting a certain number of servers, they instead subscribe to a cloud system. When their business is slow, only a few servers are used. When times are busy (like during Christmas or weekend rushes), servers are automatically activated to pick up the slack.
The cloud system give unprecedented flexibility and can save enormous amounts of money for companies. Different companies have different busy times, so the servers not being used by one company will be able to work for another one instead. This shared resource system allows companies to save lots of money while mitigating risk at the same time.
But with recent security breaches (such as the Amazon and PS3 breaches in the past two months), it is becoming quickly obvious that something is going to have to change. It's often said that a computer is only as secure as its weakest link. How secure is your cloud if you have servers in the US, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Mozambique, New Zealand, and Nigeria? Even if strong US restrictions protect your data, how safe is it in the parts of your cloud that stretch out to second and third-world countries?
Congress is considering legislation that would regulate cloud computing somewhat. While I am normally not about more government control, it seems clear that some sort of data protection must be put in place here. There are far too many chances for the cloud to be exploited, and for malicious users to gain an insane amount of information. A single failure in security can lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
The cloud is simply exploding into existence, and will not be stopped. Businesses are quickly realizing how much money they can save by going to a cloud-based system, and hosting companies big and small are moving to cloud-based sales. Whether it is congress, the IEEE, ISO or some other public or private governing body, it is becoming very clear that someone is going to have to regulate cloud computing--or the result could be much more disastrous than a few weeks without PlayStation Network.
So what is the cloud? We've all seen the "To the cloud!" commercials where someone uses their laptop to access a video from their computer half a country away. While that represents one form of cloud computing, it is a little more complicated than that. And that complication is where the problems come in.
Put simply, cloud computing focuses on using multiple servers and computers to store data online in one of many locations, so that it can be accessed by users worldwide. But instead of companies renting a certain number of servers, they instead subscribe to a cloud system. When their business is slow, only a few servers are used. When times are busy (like during Christmas or weekend rushes), servers are automatically activated to pick up the slack.
The cloud system give unprecedented flexibility and can save enormous amounts of money for companies. Different companies have different busy times, so the servers not being used by one company will be able to work for another one instead. This shared resource system allows companies to save lots of money while mitigating risk at the same time.
But with recent security breaches (such as the Amazon and PS3 breaches in the past two months), it is becoming quickly obvious that something is going to have to change. It's often said that a computer is only as secure as its weakest link. How secure is your cloud if you have servers in the US, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Mozambique, New Zealand, and Nigeria? Even if strong US restrictions protect your data, how safe is it in the parts of your cloud that stretch out to second and third-world countries?
Congress is considering legislation that would regulate cloud computing somewhat. While I am normally not about more government control, it seems clear that some sort of data protection must be put in place here. There are far too many chances for the cloud to be exploited, and for malicious users to gain an insane amount of information. A single failure in security can lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
The cloud is simply exploding into existence, and will not be stopped. Businesses are quickly realizing how much money they can save by going to a cloud-based system, and hosting companies big and small are moving to cloud-based sales. Whether it is congress, the IEEE, ISO or some other public or private governing body, it is becoming very clear that someone is going to have to regulate cloud computing--or the result could be much more disastrous than a few weeks without PlayStation Network.
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