Four Security Worries of Cloud Computing

The total number of dollars rushing toward cloud computing is massive. The various top research firms - IDC, Gartner, et al. -- all have eyebrow-raising forecasts about the growth rate of cloud-based computing services. 

But are you seeing a lot of headlines about safety? No, not really, though the worries are out there. The vendors don't seem to broach the issue much, but clearly security concerns are one of (many) reasons firms are dragging their feet about adopting cloud services. 

Plenty of IT managers see the cloud as a security black hole, in which sensitive company data is pilfered/copied/tampered with by any number of remotely-based nameless IT villains. These worries aren't unfounded. 

Among the potential dangers of this emerging technology: 

With cloud computing, your priceless data will be monitored (at some level, at least) by staffers outside the enterprise. Non-employees could conceivably have full access to it. 

Even aside from Sarbanes-Oxley, companies are held responsible for an exacting level of data monitoring and archiving. Even if a company contracts with an external cloud-based provider, these regulations hold the company itself responsible. 

Certainly cloud providers use SSL to protect data as it travels, but as it sits in storage it may share a "virtual locker" with data from other companies. Could your data even be mingled with that of a competitor? 

In theory, you don't have to worry about your data disappearing when using a cloud provider - it's easy for these providers to redundantly mirror your data in various locales, providing peace of mind against a system crash.

But will your staff have access to the data, 24/7? What if the virtual pipes are clogged? Say, some kind of internal snafu within your provider puts a hours-long brick wall between you and your critical data? Big cloud providers have suffered outages. 

The truth is, any cloud computing vendor that's worth their salt should be willing to address each of these concerns. 

But here's the point: make sure they do. Get all the answers -- and get it all in writing. Your data will thank you.