Cloud Computing - Are We One Significant Hack From Going Back To Basics?

Cloud computing is a form of computing that provides shared resources, software and information to computers and other devices on demand. Cloud computing allows users to mobilize their applications, files and data from the device they are using at any time without having to worry about what’s going on with the underlying infrastructure.

Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage and applications) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model promotes availability and is composed of four essential characteristics:

• On-demand self-service
• Broad network access
• Resource pooling

The Rise Of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing for the enterprise is considered an extension of infrastructure, which means it relies on the use of remote servers to store and manage data. Cloud computing can be used for many different things, but it often occurs as part of software as a service (SaaS).

This means that when you sign up for an online storage service like Dropbox or Google Drive, you don't need to install anything on your computer—the data that's stored in these services is stored remotely on the company's servers. If you use Google Docs at work or school, this also uses cloud computing; all your documents are saved online.

Centralization Vs Decentralization

Decentralized systems, however, are more difficult to manage. While a centralized system may have one point of failure (i.e., server), the decentralized counterpart has multiple points of failure (i.e., servers) that need to be individually managed and kept secure. While this may seem like an obvious downside at first glance, it’s important to remember that having multiple data centers is often better than having one single location with all your eggs in one basket because it allows for redundancy in case something goes wrong with one of your servers or data centers.

While many organizations are attracted to cloud options as that has them getting out of the hardware data center business and into a pay for what you use pricing model, it should be noted that longer lead times to deliver solutions are realized coupled with "cloudy" (see what I did there) visibility into identifying pitfalls of the various microservice offerings that are provisioned as part of the solution. Ultimately if user experience and time is considered money, solutions developed natively in the cloud see little to no cost savings as there are multiple layers of complexities driving up costs.

What Happens When You Have No Control Over Your Data?

As the cloud becomes more and more ubiquitous, it’s important to ask: what happens when you don’t own your data? Who are the third parties that do, can they be trusted? In a recent breach, hackers were able to access private information stored on Amazon servers. This includes usernames and passwords for accounts on other websites like Netflix and Spotify leading to massive damage control in maintaining user confidence.

What happens if you find another competing cloud offering is more attractive to your business model what is the effort to transition such data from one platform to another?

Hostage To A Ransom

Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts files on your computer and demands that you pay a ransom to get them back. It has been around for several years, but the problem has grown more prevalent in recent years. Ransomware can be delivered via email, a website, or even a pop-up window—and once it infects your machine, it will spread like wildfire to all other devices connected to the same network (like when we check our email on our phones).

The most common way cybercriminals deliver ransomware these days is through spam emails with links or attachments containing malicious code. Once opened by the user, this code infiltrates their system and begins its destructive work. Other ways include tricking people into visiting fake websites designed to look like legitimate sites where they can download software updates; infecting legitimate websites with malicious ads promoting fake AV products; installing bad apps through third-party app stores like Amazon Underground; or even just creating fake data storage services on websites made up to look like Dropbox but which really contain malware instead of file storage space!

Guilty By Association

What are the implications of placing your data and associated applications in the cloud running alongside nefarious organizations? Given the recent shocking SEC violations by perceived stalwart organizations the likes of WorldCom and Enron what happens when such organizations have their data seized by government organizations and there is effectively collateral damage that significantly impacts your business functionality. Better yet, what would the scenario look like if major players like Google, Amazon, or Microsoft were found to not be playing by the same SEC regulations and had their service offerings seized or shut down? What if your data and/or compute resources were being hosted alongside organizations that were deemed to be a player in state-sponsored terrorism, drug trafficking, or associated with an unprovoked invasion of a sovereign country? What visibility do you have in knowing who your tenant neighbors are and the potential impact of such may have?

Privacy Issues

Privacy is a human right. It's not just a legal right or moral right, but an important part of human dignity that should be respected by all people in all countries.

Privacy is also fundamental to the protection and promotion of other fundamental rights, such as freedom of association and freedom of speech. In fact, it is one of the most important legal rights - without privacy you can't have any other freedoms at all!

Microservices - The Next Step Toward Centralization

Microservices are a new way of developing software that is modular, scalable and maintainable. A microservice is any application that is built as a self-contained unit of code with its own data store. Microservices are a way to develop software that has been growing in popularity over the last few years. They have become so popular because they allow developers to build more scalable systems by making code easier to manage and scale out.

Larger applications were traditionally built using monolithic architectures which only allowed for one large application with all features bundled into one big piece of software. However, this approach often results in difficulties when trying to perform upgrades as it requires downtime while you make changes or add new features (think Windows 95 vs Windows XP). In contrast, microservice architectures provide several benefits including:

• Improved Maintainability: Smaller pieces mean fewer dependencies which makes it easier for developers working on them as well as non-developers who need maintenance work done on their part (for example an ops engineer). It also means faster resolution times if something goes wrong because there aren’t many people affected at once by any given change happening within their area of responsibility (which would be harder if there was only 1 large application).

• Scalability: Since each service can run independently from others without affecting other services running concurrently across different machines then adding additional hardware resources will allow us access more power without increasing complexity required from those managing it all; this means less work overall!

What Is The Future Of Cloud Computing?

As the cloud computing industry continues to grow, it's important to remember that the technology is still in its early stages. With the right investments and policies, this technology will hopefully become more secure and trustworthy each year. It's crucial for lawmakers, companies, and individuals alike to take advantage of these technologies where risk is minimal and controlling your own destiny is achievable.

Going Back To Basics

If you’re a serious business, it’s time to get your IT infrastructure up to scratch. It may seem like a lot of money to spend on tech upgrades and improvements, but if you don't have strong security measures in place and an effective backup system in place, then you're playing with fire.

A solid IT infrastructure will help you run more smoothly and efficiently as a business—and it will also protect your data from hackers who aim to steal it or corrupt it with malware. This means that businesses should be looking into cloud computing as an alternative option for their storage needs (cloud storage is cheaper than buying servers outright).

See Related: Azure's capacity limitations are continuing. What can customers do?

Cloud based computing has many benefits especially for medium to small sized businesses but large mature organizations is still debatable. However, if not well planned or implemented, it can cause more harm than good for your business. If you consider your organization belonging to a more large mature organization perhaps cloud computing is not for you, as your process maturation would far exceed the throttled and micromanaged distribution of computing resources that cloud providers often invoke with little regard for the disruption in your business operations.

Suggested Media: