Digital Media Buzz > All Backed Up: Cloud Computing Security Issues

All Backed Up: Cloud Computing Security Issues

By James Zipadelli

(Editor’s note: This is the first part of a two-part series on addressing security risk on cloud computing. Check back next week for the second part.)

Internet-based computing, also known as “cloud computing,” is one of the latest trends in digital media. The idea is that people can access information through data centers anywhere with an Internet connection. Companies such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon are working on perfecting their ‘clouds.’ The city of Los Angeles is so impressed with the concept that it is considering replacing its email system with a ‘cloud’ Google offers.

Google says there are benefits for the company and consumers to switch to the cloud. “This technology enables people to quickly turn on applications and innovation like a utility, instead of having to install and run their own applications,” says Eran Feigenbaum, director of security for Google Apps. “We also place a great deal of importance on being able to take your data off of our servers if you choose.”

For all its potential, the question is: Is the cloud safe? If one person’s information is on the cloud, and that person crashes, am I going to crash, too?

“No security system is 100-percent secure, and anyone who says otherwise can’t be trusted,” Feigenbaum says. “That said, there are many misconceptions about the security of cloud computing, and we work every day to help correct them. Many data breach incidents are the result of improperly configured systems, slow software patching, or stolen or lost portable devices — like laptops and USB keys. We’ve done all we can to minimize those risks.”

“At this point, it’s really more of an emotional argument than anything else,” Feigenbaum adds. “There may always be some people who don’t trust the cloud, just as there are still some people who don’t trust banks and prefer to keep their valuables under the mattress. However, it can’t be denied that cloud computing is a fundamental architectural shift spreading through the business world. We’re entering a new era of computing, similar to the change from mainframes to PCs.”

Gartner fellow and vice president David Cearley says many of the same questions that applied to outsourcing could be applied to cloud computing. For example, what is the physical security of the facility?

“What is different with cloud computing are two things: data ownership and privacy issues,” Cearley says. “The upside to cloud computing is that you can scale up to use resources, or scale down to use resources. One of the downsides is that you are running in the same data centers as other people.”

Cearley points out that Amazon and other companies working on their clouds have “done a lot” to address security concerns. “Amazon has a single cloud computing environment; multiple data centers but in the same environment,” Cearley says. “Those things we put up there might run in a data center in different machines, the same machine in the same data center, or different machines in a different data center. But it’s the resources in the same environment.”

Cearley also says another issue is getting around regulations of different countries. In Germany, for example, there are regulations about moving personal information outside of the country. In the end, he says cloud computing will become better.

“People that make the assumption that cloud computing is less secure than internal systems have it wrong,” Cearley says. “There are real security issues with cloud computing, but we think in the future, all these will be addressed for large businesses and small businesses. A company will not always put a small amount of information in a external environment, whether it’s a cloud computing environment or a hosted-source environment.”

Google directs users who want more information to go to the website .

James Zipadelli is a Connecticut-based freelance journalist. He has freelanced for ctnewsjunkie.com, Targeted News Service and several publications in Boston. You can find him on the Web at www.jameszipadelli.com or on Twitter @redsoxlive.