data center security & the pitfalls of cloud computing

1. Data Center Security & The Pitfalls of Cloud Computing

2. Data Center Security The data center security debate over the risks of cloud computing as well as the future of cloud computing is underway following an outage of Amazon’s web services. This web services outage lasted nearly a week and resulted in social media sites such as FourSquare, Reddit and Quora as well as a number of other Web sites experiencing considerable losses.

3. Cloud computing is the provision of computational resources on demand via a computer network, such as applications, databases, file services, email, etc. In the traditional model of computing, both data and software are fully contained on the user's computer; in cloud computing, the user's computer may contain almost no software or data (perhaps a minimal operating system and web browser only), serving as little more than a display terminal for processes occurring on a network of computers far away. Cloud Computing 3

4. Essentially cloud computing allows Amazon’s Elastic Cloud Compute service to host hundreds of Web sites remotely. Users rely on these services to serve pages as well as store data and account information. Which means, when Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud service encounters a problem so do all the hosted sites. In this situation, when Amazon’s service went out users were unable to access their accounts and their data. This data center security issue is a major pitfall for the cloud computing industry, which is expected to grow to nearly $60 billion by 2014. The Pitfalls of Cloud Computing 4

5. The length of Amazon’s cloud service outage was surprising to many IT professionals and has made people question the reliability of the cloud’s data center security. The major benefit of cloud computing is it protects users data when their home or business computer crashes. However, if the cloud crashes, users are left helpless and unable to access data. The Pitfalls of Cloud Computing 5

6. With the reliability of cloud computing being called into question, businesses will have to determine what computer operations to host in data centers and what operations to host on a cloud operated by an external vendor. Eventually, businesses may be able to host all of their mission-critical applications on the cloud but for now data centers remain the more reliable and secure hosting option. Data Centers: A Secure Hosting Option 6

7. Hosting your data, either as primary or back up to the cloud, in a quality data center will ensure you’re equipped with the data center security solutions you need to safely and reliably run your business. Data center security is taken very seriously and a quality data center service provider’s data center security solutions are designed and deployed to allow customers to focus on their core business instead of being distracted by escalating security threats and evolving compliance requirements. Data Center Security 7

8. It is important to choose a data center service provider that delivers managed network data center security and certified compliance solutions as opposed to data centers with uncertified partial fixes, or worse, self-audited solutions. With a quality data center you get holistic solutions that eliminate the need for dedicated resources or juggling multiple vendors, products, and requirements. Data Center Security 8

9. Michael Duckett is President of CoreLink Data Centers, a leading provider of data center hosting and managed services solutions in Chicago, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Seattle. For more information about data center security, visit http://www.corelink.com/data-center-security-solutions.htm today. About the Author 9