Surfing the Surveys: Cloud, Security and those Pesky Breaches
While I’m not the biggest fan of taking surveys, I sure love the data/reports that are generated by such creatures. And boy has there been a bunch of recent statistical information released on cloud computing, information security, breaches and general IT. Since this prologue is kinda lame, let’s just get into the sometimes frightening, sometimes encouraging and always interesting results from a variety of sources. 2012 Verizon Data Breach Report: If you haven’t, read Securosis' blog about how to read and digest the report. It’s a great primer on what to expect. An important piece mentioned is that it’s a Breach report, not a cybercrime or attack report. It only includes incidents where data was taken – no data loss, not included. And with that in mind, according to the report, there were 855 incidents with 174 million compromised records, the 2nd highest data loss total since they’ve been tracking (2004). This coming after a record low 4 million lost records last year. The gold record of stolen records. While hacktivism exploded, accounted for 100 million of that 174 mill of stolen records and 58% of all data theft along with untraditional motives; credit cards, intellectual property, classified info and trade secrets were all still hot targets. 81% of the breaches used some sort of hacking with 69% involving malware. 79% were targets of opportunity meaning they had an exploitable vulnerability rather than being ‘on a list.’ 96% of the breaches were not that difficult and 97% could have been avoided using simple to standard protection mechanisms. Unfortunately, organizations typically don’t discover the breach until weeks later. As Securosis points out, don’t be flustered by the massive increase in lost data but focus on the attack and defense trends to help protect against becoming a statistic and as Verizon mentions, ‘this study reminds us that our profession has the necessary tools to get the job done. The challenge for the good guys lies in selecting the right tools for the job at hand and then not letting them get dull and rusty over time. Evidence shows when that happens, the bad guys are quick to take advantage of it.’ BMC Software Survey: Conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of BMC, ‘Delivering on High Cloud Expectations’ found that while 81% of the respondents said that a comprehensive cloud strategy is a high priority, they are facing huge challenges in accomplishing that task – mainly complexity. Even with cost reduction as a top IT priority, 43% reported using three or more hypervisor technologies as they try to reduce complexity. CIOs are concerned that cloud technologies offer an avenue for groups to circumvent IT which may hinder IT’s ability to meet overall business expectations. When groups deploy unmanaged public cloud services without IT involvement it can add to the complexity that they are trying to avoid. While 79% of respondents do plan on supporting mission-critical workloads on unmanaged public cloud services over the next two years, only 36% allow this today. No surprise that hybrid-cloud deployments, at 37%, was the most desired deployment. The full study results will be announced on Thursday, April 26, 2012 at 11 a.m. CDT as part of a BMC webinar. CSC Cloud Usage Index: Late last year, Independent research firm TNS surveyed more than 3,500 cloud computing users in eight countries around the world to find answers to cloud usage, expectations, attitudes and other cloud related questions. The survey focused on capturing user information about outcomes and experiences rather than predictions and intentions. In an interesting shift from the typical ‘cost savings’ and ‘business agility’ usually cited as a top motivator, one-third of respondents cite their need to better connect employees who use a multitude of computing devices as the number one reason they adopt cloud. 17% claim agility and only 10% indicate cost savings as a top reason for cloud adoption. 82% of respondents said they saved money on their most recent cloud project but 35% of U.S organizations reported a payback of less that $20,000. In terms of overall IT performance, 93% of respondents say cloud improved their data center efficiency/utilization and 80% see similar improvements within six months of moving to the cloud. Zenoss 100 Best Cloud Stats of 2011: Admittedly, this came out last year but it is still a great statistical overview of Cloud Computing. It starts with data growth stats, like 48 hours of video uploaded to youtube every minute; that 74% of Data Centers have increased their server count over the last three years accounting for 5.75 million new servers every year yet 15% do not have data backup and recovery plans; that, on average, cloud users report saving 21% annually on those applications moved to the cloud; that a delay of 1 second in page load times equals 7% loss of conversions, 11% fewer pages viewed and a 16% decrease in customer satisfaction; that Agility is the top driver for cloud adoption and Scalability the top factor influencing cloud use; that 74% of companies are using some sort of cloud service today yet 79% do not have an IT roadmap for cloud computing and a whole slew of others. All the stats appear to be attributed and run the gamut from storage to cloud to apps. Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) study: As enterprises continue to embrace cloud adoption, it is important for service providers to understand motivators for cloud adoption to ensure those services are being offered. This study, USA Cloud Adoption & Trends 2012 shows that smaller U.S. companies indicate that flexibility as their main driver for cloud adoption while large enterprises cite cost savings as their main reason for cloud deployments. This survey also noted that ‘Cloud’ is no longer a nebulous buzzword with 76% of polled organizations already using some sort of cloud computing for at least one service. Organizations are happy about it also – 98% said they were satisfied with the results of their cloud services with 94% expecting to increase their use in the next 12 months. Data security and data privacy were tagged as the top concerns with 56% and 53% respectively. By no means an exhaustive list of all the recent survey results pertaining to cloud and/or IT security, but they do offer some interesting data points to consider as organizations continue to strive to deliver their available applications as fast and secure as possible. psCloudFucius Shares: Cloud Research and Stats
Sharing is caring, according to some and with the shortened week, CloudFucius decided to share some resources he’s come across during his Cloud exploration in this abbreviated post. A few are aged just to give a perspective of what was predicted and written about over time. Some Interesting Cloud Computing Statistics (2008) Mobile Cloud Computing Subscribers to Total Nearly One Billion by 2014 (2009) Server, Desktop Virtualization To Skyrocket By 2013: Report (2009) Gartner: Brace yourself for cloud computing (2009) A Berkeley View of Cloud Computing (2009) Cloud computing belongs on your three-year roadmap (2009) Twenty-One Experts Define Cloud Computing (2009) 5 cool cloud computing research projects (2009) Research Clouds (2010) Cloud Computing Growth Forecast (2010) Cloud Computing and Security - Statistics Center (2010) Cloud Computing Experts Reveal Top 5 Applications for 2010 (2010) List of Cloud Platforms, Providers, and Enablers 2010 (2010) The Cloud Computing Opportunity by the Numbers (2010) Governance grows more integral to managing cloud computing security risks, says survey (2010) The Cloud Market EC2 Statistics (2010) Experts believe cloud computing will enhance disaster management (2010) Cloud Computing Podcast (2010) Security experts ponder the cost of cloud computing (2010) Cloud Computing Research from Business Exchange (2010) Just how green is cloud computing? (2010) Senior Analyst Guides Investors Through Cloud Computing Sector And Gives His Top Stock Winners (2010) Towards Understanding Cloud Performance Tradeoffs Using Statistical Workload Analysis and Replay (2010) …along with F5’s own Lori MacVittie who writes about this stuff daily. And one from Confucius: Study the past if you would define the future. ps The CloudFucius Series: Intro, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8Hey You, Get Off-ah My Cloud!
Who would have thought that a Rolling Stones song written almost 50 years ago could become a technology cliché (or battle cry) a half-century later. Yesterday, research firm Gartner Inc. said that by 2014, The Personal Cloud will replace the Personal Computer as the Center of the Users’ Digital Lives. The Cloud has come a long way in a few years – quickly going from some nebulous thing based on virtualization that everyone tried to define to the Center of our Digital Lives. This does not necessarily mean the death of the PC, personal computer that is, it just means that the focus will be on the devices, leveraging each device strength, how we use various/different devices daily and deliver the content based on that context. Since we’ll be able to get to our stuff, all our stuff, on whatever device we have at the time, we’ll be happier and more productive. OK, what’s the bad news? This will require IT to completely rethink how they deliver applications and services to users yet again. According to Gartner’s Press Release: Several driving forces are combining to create this new era. These megatrends have roots that extend back through the past decade but are aligning in a new way. Megatrend No. 1: Consumerization — You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet Gartner has discussed the consumerization of IT for the better part of a decade, and has seen the impact of it across various aspects of the corporate IT world. However, much of this has simply been a precursor to the major wave that is starting to take hold across all aspects of information technology as several key factors come together: Users are more technologically savvy and have very different expectations of technology. The Internet and social media have empowered and emboldened users. The rise of powerful, affordable mobile devices changes the equation for users. Users have become innovators. Through the democratization of technology, users of all types and status within organizations can now have similar technology available to them. Megatrend No. 2: Virtualization — Changing How the Game Is Played Virtualization has improved flexibility and increased the options for how IT organizations can implement client environments. Virtualization has, to some extent, freed applications from the peculiarities of individual devices, operating systems or even processor architectures. Virtualization provides a way to move the legacy of applications and processes developed in the PC era forward into the new emerging world. This provides low-power devices access to much-greater processing power, thus expanding their utility and increasing the reach of processor-intensive applications. Megatrend No. 3: "App-ification" — From Applications to Apps When the way that applications are designed, delivered and consumed by users changes, it has a dramatic impact on all other aspects of the market. These changes will have a profound impact on how applications are written and managed in corporate environments. They also raise the prospect of greater cross-platform portability as small user experience (UX) apps are used to adjust a server- or cloud-resident application to the unique characteristics of a specific device or scenario. One application can now be exposed in multiple ways and used in varying situations by the user. Megatrend No. 4: The Ever-Available Self-Service Cloud The advent of the cloud for servicing individual users opens a whole new level of opportunity. Every user can now have a scalable and nearly infinite set of resources available for whatever they need to do. The impacts for IT infrastructures are stunning, but when this is applied to the individual, there are some specific benefits that emerge. Users' digital activities are far more self-directed than ever before. Users demand to make their own choices about applications, services and content, selecting from a nearly limitless collection on the Internet. This encourages a culture of self-service that users expect in all aspects of their digital experience. Users can now store their virtual workspace or digital personality online. Megatrend No. 5: The Mobility Shift — Wherever and Whenever You Want Today, mobile devices combined with the cloud can fulfill most computing tasks, and any tradeoffs are outweighed in the minds of the user by the convenience and flexibility provided by the mobile devices. The emergence of more-natural user interface experiences is making mobility practical. Touch- and gesture-based user experiences, coupled with speech and contextual awareness, are enabling rich interaction with devices and a much greater level of freedom. At any point in time, and depending on the scenario, any given device will take on the role of the user's primary device — the one at the center of the user's constellation of devices. "The combination of these megatrends, coupled with advances in new enabling technologies, is ushering in the era of the personal cloud," said Mr. Kleynhans. "In this new world, the specifics of devices will become less important for the organization to worry about. Users will use a collection of devices, with the PC remaining one of many options, but no one device will be the primary hub. Rather, the personal cloud will take on that role. Access to the cloud and the content stored or shared in the cloud will be managed and secured, rather than solely focusing on the device itself." Of course I immediately thought of Pigpen with his cloud of dust following him around or that we will all have those ‘thinking’ balloons around us wherever we go. At least we can keep the acronym. ps Resources: Gartner Says the Personal Cloud Will Replace the Personal Computer as the Center of Users' Digital Lives by 2014 ‘Personal Cloud’ to Replace PC by 2014, Says Gartner Gartner Consumer Research: Personal Cloud Get Off of my Cloud Computing – Competition in the ‘Cloud’ Get Off of My Cloud Hey, You, Get off of My Cloud Hey You, Get Off Of My Cloud Get off my cloud! (It’s private) Technorati Tags: F5, gartner, personal cloud, cloud computing, Pete Silva, security, business, consumerization, technology, application delivery, cloud, mobile, infrastructure 2.0, web, internetThe STAR of Cloud Security
The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), a not-for-profit organization with a mission to promote the use of best practices for providing security assurance within Cloud Computing, recently announced that they are launching (Q4 of 2011) a publicly accessible registry that will document the security controls provided by various cloud computing offerings. The idea is to encourage transparency of security practices within cloud providers and help users evaluate and determine the security of their current cloud provider or a provider they are considering. The service will be free. CSA STAR (Security, Trust and Assurance Registry) is open to all cloud providers whether they offer SaaS, PaaS or IaaS and allows them to submit self assessment reports that document compliance in relation to the CSA published best practices. The CSA says that the searchable registry will allow potential cloud customers to review the security practices of providers, accelerating their due diligence and leading to higher-quality procurement experiences. There are two different types of reports that the cloud provider can submit to to indicate their compliance with CSA best practices. The Consensus Assessments Initiative Questionnaire (CAIQ), a 140 question document which provides industry-accepted ways to document what security controls exist in IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS offerings and the Cloud Control Matrix (CCM) which provides a controls framework that gives detailed understanding of security concepts and principles that are aligned to the Cloud Security Alliance guidance in areas like ISACA COBIT, PCI, and NIST. Providers who chose to take part and submit the documents are on the ‘honor system’ since this is a self assessment and users will need to trust that the information is accurate. CSA is encouraging providers to participate and says, in doing so, they will address some of the most urgent and important security questions buyers are asking, and can dramatically speed up the purchasing process for their services. In addition to self-assessments, CSA will provide a list of providers who have integrated CAIQ and CCM and other components from CSA’s Governance, Risk Management and Compliance (GRC) stack into their compliance management tools. This should help with those who are still a bit hesitant about Cloud services. The percentage of those claiming ‘security issues’ as a deterrent for cloud deployments has steadily dropped over the last year. Last year around this time on any given survey, anywhere from 42% to 73% of those respondents said cloud technology does not provide adequate security safeguards and that that security concerns have prevented their adoption of cloud computing. In a recent cloud computing study from TheInfoPro, only 13% cited security worries as a cloud roadblock, after up-front costs at 15%. Big difference than a year ago. In this most recent survey, they found that ‘fear of change’ to be the biggest hurdle for cloud adoption. Ahhhh, change. One of the things most difficult for humans. Change is constant yet the basics are still the same - education, preparation, and anticipation of what cloud is about and what it can offer is a necessity for success. ps References: CSA focuses best-practice lens on cloud security Assessing the security of cloud providers CSA Registry Strives for Security Transparency of Providers Cloud Security Alliance Introduces Provider Trust and Assurance Registry Transparency Key To Cloud Security Cloud Security Alliance launches registry: not a moment too soon Fear of Change Impedes Cloud Adoption for Many Companies F5 Cloud Computing SolutionsCloudFucius Tunes into Radio KCloud
Set the dial and rip it off – all the hits from the 70s, 80s, 90s and beyond – you’re listening to the K-Cloud. We got The Puffy & Fluffy Show to get you going in the morning, Cumulous takes you through midday with lunchtime legion, Mist and Haze get you home with 5 o’clock funnies and drive-time traffic while Vapor billows overnight for all you insomniacs. K-Cloud; Radio Everywhere. I came across this article which discusses Radio’s analogue to digital transition and it’s slow but eventual move to cloud computing. How ‘Embracing cloud computing requires a complete rethinking of the design, operation and planning of a station’s data center.’ Industries like utilities, technology, insurance, government and others are already using the cloud while the broadcast community is just starting it’s exploration, according to Tom Vernon, a long-time contributor to Radio World. Like many of you, I grew up listening to the radio (music, I’m not that old) and still have a bunch of hole-punched record albums for being the 94th caller. I listened to WHJY (94-HJY) in Providence and still remember the day in 1981 when it switched from JOY, a soft, classical station to Album-Orientated Rock. Yes, I loved the hair-metal, arena rock, new wave, pop and most what they now call classic rock. It’s weird remembering ‘Emotional Rescue’ and ‘Love Rollercoaster’ playing on the radio as Top 40 hits and now they are considered ‘classics.’ Um, what am I then?!? That article prompted me to explore the industries that have not embraced the cloud, and why. Risk adverse industries immediately come to mind, like financial and health care. There have been somewhat contradictory stories and surveys recently indicating both that, they are hesitant to adopt the cloud and ready to embrace the cloud. A survey by LogLogic says that 60% of the financial services sector felt that cloud computing was not a priority or they were risk-averse to cloud computing. This is generally an industry that historically has been an early adopter of new technologies. The survey indicates that they will be spending IT dollars on ‘essential’ needs and that security questions and data governance concerns is what’s holding them back from cloud adoption. About a week later, results from a survey done by The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) and IBM reports that there is now a strong interest in cloud computing after a couple years of reluctance. The delay was due to the cost of implementing new technologies and the lack of talent needed to mange those systems. Security is not the barrier that it once was since their cloud strategies include security ramifications. They better understand the security risks and calculate that into their deployment models. This InformationWeek.com story says that the financial services industry is indeed interested in cloud computing, as long as it’s a Private Cloud. The one’s behind the corporate firewall, not Public floaters. And that security was not the real issue, regulations and compliance with international border laws were the real holdback. In the healthcare sector, according to yet another survey, Accenture says that 73% said they are planning cloud movements while nearly one-third already have deployed cloud environments. This story also says that ‘healthcare firms are beginning to realize that cloud providers actually may offer more robust security than is available in-house.’ Is there a contradiction? Maybe. More, I think it shows natural human behavior and progression when facing fears. If you don’t understand something and there is a significant risk involved we’ll generally say, ‘no thanks’ to preserve our safety and security. As the dilemma is better understood and some of the fears are either addressed or accounted for, the threat level is reduced and progress can be made. This time around, while there are still concerns, we are more likely to give it a try since we know what to expect. A risk assessment exercise gives us the tools to manage the fears. Maybe the threat is high but the potential of it occurring is low or the risk is medium but we now know how to handle it. It’s almost like jumping out of a plane. If you’ve never done it, that first 3000ft tethered leap can be freighting – jumping at that height, hoping a huge piece of fabric will hold and glide you to a safe landing on the ground. But once you’ve been through training, practiced it a few times, understand how to deploy your backup ‘chute and realize the odds are in your favor, then it’s not so daunting. This may be what’s happening with risk averse industries and cloud computing. Initially, the concerns, lack of understanding, lack of visibility, lack of maturity, lack of control, lack of security mechanisms and their overall fear kept these entities away, even with the lure of flexibility and potential cost savings. Now that there is a better understanding of what types of security solutions a cloud provider can and cannot offer along with the knowledge of how to address specific security concerns, it’s not so scary any more. Incidentally, I had initially used KCLD and WCLD for my cloud stations until I realized that they were already taken by real radio stations out of Minnesota and Mississippi. And one from Confucius: Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it. ps The CloudFucius Series: Intro, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12CloudFucius Councils: Cloud’s Love/Hate Relationship
I’m afraid so….let’s get more! I don’t like it and….here’s a check. I’m not safe….but I need another. I’m so sick of you….give me a big hug. As I’ve mentioned on a few occasions, it seems like a new cloud computing survey gets released on a weekly basis and often the results make me want to scratch my head. One says that cloud is growing and folks love the benefits while another claims fears are holding companies back and cloud adoption could be in trouble. We really need The Cloud Computing Love/Hate Relationship Survey with conditional type questions like: If all your fears were removed, would you jump head first? Surveys can always be tricky – the way the questions are asked, in what context, the questions themselves and of course, the actual respondents answering the questions. Now to the data. First up, we got the 2010 State of Cloud and Virtualization Survey conducted by Zenoss, a privately held company and the corporate sponsor of the cloud-based networking/management project Zenoss Core. Responses came from the 207 members of the Zenoss Open Source community and comprised of IT management, generalists, and network operators. Security was the number one hindrance, with management and monitoring as the other top concerns. When asked for reasons for using virtualization technology, 43% favored the flexibility and another 33% liked the hardware savings. The overall number one goal of using virtualization was cost savings (64.7%) followed by deployment control. Almost 71% said they wanted a tool that managed all their infrastructure rather than a solution that just focused on virtualization. Next is Gartner’s survey that focused primarily on budgets and spending on external IT resources, specifically IT spending trends and spending on cloud computing. This was a worldwide survey covering 40 countries and questioned 1,587 respondents who managed IT budgets (CIOs, IT VPs, IT directors, IT managers, etc). 484 of those also answered detailed questions about their plans for cloud computing. 39% said they have allocated IT dollars specifically for cloud computing. A third was a continuation of last year’s budget, another third said this was additional spending new to the budget and 14% said the additional spending was being taken from a different budget category in the previous year. Of those with budget allocated, 46% indicated that they plan on increasing the use of cloud services from external providers. More respondents (43%) said the spending would go toward private/internal clouds than external/public use deployments (32%). Overall, 10.2% of IT budgets are expected to be spent on external cloud service providers – a shift from traditional data center assets to utility services in the cloud. Another recent survey, this one conducted by PhoneFactor, asked more than 300 information technology professionals from a variety of industries about the role of security in cloud computing adoption. This survey also asked about their organizations’ current and planned use of cloud computing, what perceived benefits are driving adoption, along with which concerns are limiting embracement. Overwhelmingly, security was the top concern with 73% saying such. Compliance (54%) and Portability/Ownership of Data (48%) came in with silver and bronze. 42% said that security concerns have prevented their adoption of cloud computing, 30% unsure and only 28% bragged that security was not a deterrent. Of the security concerns, preventing unauthorized access to company data was the biggest hurdle. According to the survey, encryption (84 percent), multi-factor authentication (81 percent), and intrusion prevention (80 percent) are vital to securing the cloud. On the positives, reduced cost (65 percent), scalability (62 percent), and rapid implementation (50 percent) make cloud computing attractive to organizations. Another positive sign is that 87% affirmed that they are planning to at least evaluate the use of cloud services. Lastly, in a survey from Sterling Commerce (an IBM Company) and conducted by Edge Research, looked at the business concerns of 301 IT, sales and supply chain decision makers in the manufacturing and logistics industries. This one was more about the economic environment and managing volatility within the supply chain. The main focus in 2011 will be focusing on implementing solutions that are more precise and automated, allowing them to reduce risk. Pertaining to cloud computing, the survey uncovered that manufacturers will continue to invest in cloud computing with 60% of respondents already implementing cloud solutions and 36% implementing two or more cloud solutions. Survey results revealed that order management, supply chain visibility and warehouse management are the most commonly used cloud solutions among manufacturers today. All these surveys show that while there is a huge interest in cloud services and companies understand and in many cases are realizing the benefits; concerns about security, control and management are holding some back. Most seem to be testing the waters with less than critical business applications and are anxious about the future. Anxious both in terms of anticipation and fear. They want it…but need some issues ironed out. They see the benefits….yet some risks are too great. They love the design….but hate the color. Certainly, many obstructions are related (or at least that’s what they say) to security, I also wonder if that many of the security responses might have to do with the fear giving up control themselves. They cite ‘security’ since that will help them keep control. To quote a colleague, ‘it’s going to take a while for cloud to take hold. It’s got a toe in the door right now….and that’s a little toe.’ And one from Confucius: Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles. ps The CloudFucius Series: Intro, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 Related: 2010 State of Cloud and Virtualization Survey Report: 2010 Virtualization and Cloud Computing Survey Infographic: The State of Cloud Computing Gartner Survey Shows Cloud-Computing Services Represents 10 Percent of Spending on External IT Services in 2010 Gartner Survey Reveals How the Cloud Is Changing IT Budgets Cloud computing service spending increases: Gartner Security a Big Concern for Cloud Computing Security Is Stunting Adoption of Cloud Computing Survey Finds Cloud Security Lacking New Survey Reveals Reliance on Manual Processes Puts Customer Relationships at Risk CloudFucius Confused: Cloud Costing Companies? CloudFucius Shares: Cloud Research and Stats CloudFucius’ Money: Trickles to the CloudThe Cloud Impact and Adoption Infographic
Maybe you’ve noticed but I’ve been on an infographic kick lately – especially when it’s something interesting. This time it is an aggregated infographic of data primarily from Forrester, IDC and Gartner as it pertains to the cloud’s impact and adoption thru 2015. According to Axway, the cloud is expected to become the primary operating system for enterprise by 2014, mobile devices are driving adoption, and the cloud hype is over, this thing is for real. Full jpg can be found here. psCloudFucius Investigates: The Comeback Cloud
Not that it was ever down and out, but the whole cloud computing concept has gotten off to a grand but challenging start. It was all the rage when first ‘conceived’ as the new way of hosting applications with the promise of cost savings, automation, flexible/dynamic architectures, fast and repeatable deployment and a pay-as-you-go model. The Coin Operated Cloud but with very little understanding of all the buttons, functions and risks. As IT started to comprehend the nuances of the cloud, then some very serious questions regarding it’s ability to protect and secure information came to light. This arrived at a time when the economic downturn could have vaulted the shared, less expensive infrastructure offerings to the top of any IT list since budgets were tight and resources scarce. It was the perfect storm of tight budgets and cost effective computing. However, the risk of data loss kept folks questioning the viability of putting sensitive data in the cloud. Plus, no consent on standards kept the mix of cloud offerings all over the place while limiting the customer’s ability to mix and match. As cloud offerings matured and *some* security concerns addressed along with IT having a better grasp on risks and mitigation, the cloud is gradually becoming more attractive to enterprises. Like anything else that suddenly bursts on to the scene, the hype outweighs the reality and it takes time to fully understand and realize the benefits. It seems that almost weekly a shiny new cloud computing survey is released and this week, Vanson Bourne (commissioned by Savvis) released a report that ties cloud computing to the economic recovery. Specifically, ‘68 percent of respondents said cloud computing will help their businesses recover from the recession.’ The survey found that 54% of respondents said cost cutting and more flexible IT provisioning is the biggest issue they face and they are optimistic with the prospect that cloud computing can cut costs. A significant number of IT decision makers, 96%, said they are as confident or more confident than they were last year that cloud computing is enterprise ready. Yankee Group also released a report that says cloud computing is on the cusp of broad enterprise adoption. They also indicate that the concept of cloud computing as a business enabler has jumped from 37% to 60% of respondents in just a year. But can cloud computing save the economy? That’s a stretch, according to David Linthicum in this article. The logic goes, if companies can save money with cloud computing and are more optimistic about the prospect of cloud computing, then they will start spending IT dollars for cloud deployments. This will, in turn, boost the cloud economy since providers will have to prepare and hire for the influx of customers. Since accelerated growth would occur, that would attract public and private investments in cloud computing technologies. The ‘catalyst,’ as Linthicum notes, is to get more investment dollars back into the technology industry, which should fuel the tech economy at least. Betting that cloud computing will turn the entire economy is a huge long-shot and unrealistic. The survey also revealed that even with all that confidence, security remains as the key adoption barrier. 52% of those who do not use cloud computing said ‘security of sensitive data’ as a top concern. In a slightly related story, LimeWire Planning A Serious, Cloud-Based Comeback. And one from Confucius: And remember, no matter where you go, there you are. ps The CloudFucius Series: Intro, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 Resources: Cloud Computing Will Fuel Economic Recovery: Survey Will cloud computing save the economy? Who's actually spending on cloud computing? Yankee Group: Sky clears for cloud computing Cloud Computing's Effect on the Hosting Industry LimeWire Planning A Serious, Cloud-Based ComebackCloudFucius Is: Ready for Some Football
With the opening game of the NFL season in the books and a Sunday (and Monday) of Week 1 matchups filling our living rooms, home team stadiums, fantasy leagues and mobile devices, I was curious just how the NFL and sporting events in general are using cloud services. Technology used within the professional sporting realm has always fascinated me from statistics giant Stats Inc to the 1st down graphics from the likes of Sportvision, Princeton Video Image and SportsMEDIA to Skycam, the cable suspended camera giving you a bird’s eye view of the action and of course, the NFL banning Twitter during games. Media companies are jumping all over cloud computing for the elasticity of services (jump in traffic), digital content, storage and to optimize communication and collaboration of workflows of content production, post-production and delivery. Last week, IBM announced that it was bringing cloud computing to the US Open. This allows the US Tennis Association (USTA) to scale up capacity during the event. They can also take real-time and historic sports data, merge them on a common platform and deliver it to their various consumers: media, officials, fans and the players themselves no matter what the platform – web, mobile, broadcast, social media and so forth. They can also analyze data from the courtside radar guns, the umpire systems, the court statistician and TV feeds. The annual NFL Scouting Combine is when college players ‘audition’ for spots on NFL rosters. They are tested for physical performance like the 40 yard dash along with their mental and problem solving skills to determine if they will make it in the NFL. All the information (data) is collected and then evaluated by owners, coaches, scouts, medical staff and team executives. The amount of data is huge and in years past, it was done with paper and pencil and then entered into computer systems or burned to CD’s and then mailed. There were entry errors, delays and the systems were potential targets for breaches. Now, the capturing, collecting and distribution of player data is done in the cloud making it much more efficient. The data is merged with a master database using a secure connection and then a secure website is provided to the NFL teams to login and view content, download collateral and subscribe to feeds. Pretty cool. When the NFL wanted to extend it’s brand to an international audience, they created NFL360, an interactive media site with videos, game history, player profiles and many other goodies available for fans around the world. Here they deployed a system with Digitaria using technology based on cloud computing. The site also has games and other activities for the NFL fan. NY Jets owner Woody Johnson is testing some cool technology in the skybox this year. He’ll have a touch-screen device to keep track of all the game day operations from his device and get a view of the entire stadium's data flow. From concessions to merchandise to ticket info to the traffic jam in the Meadowlands parking lot, he’ll have access to it all. I’m excited to see the Dolphins win the AFC East and my fantasy team kick butt this year. The cloud will be there too, domed stadium or not. And one from Confucius: He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.. ps The CloudFucius Series: Intro, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20The Best of…Me
Part shameless self promotion while taking a cue from Morning Radio shows, I’m out of the office this week and decided to post some of my most popular blogs – according to you, the viewer. Or as Kent Brockman puts it, ‘this reporter places the blame for all of this squarely on YOU, the viewers!’ CloudFucius Shares: Cloud Research and Stats: Sharing is caring, according to some and with the shortened week, CloudFucius decided to share some resources he’s come across during his Cloud exploration in this abbreviated post. A few are aged just to give a perspective of what was predicted and written about over time. The New Certificate 2048 My Performance: Transactions handled over SSL can require substantial computational power to establish the connection (handshake) and then to encrypt and decrypt the transferred data. If you need the same performance as non-secured data, then additional computing power (CPU) is needed. SSL processing can be up to 5 times more computationally expensive than clear text to have the same level of performance, no matter which vendor is providing the hardware. SSL Offload takes much of that computing burden off the servers and places it on dedicated SSL hardware. SSL offloading can relieve the Web server of the processing burden of encrypting and/or decrypting traffic sent via SSL. F5’s BIG-IP system with Oracle Access Manager: F5 and Oracle announced plans to unify access management for web applications. Press release can be found here. The solution combines F5’s BIG-IP system with Oracle Access Manager to enhance single sign-on (SSO) capabilities and simplify access control. Unifying application delivery and web access management. 26 Short Topics about Security: Stats, Stories and Suggestions: The crew at DevCentral has a great series called A to Z, and I decided to build upon (or steal, however you see it) the idea with ‘26 Short Topics about Security.’ Not too technically heavy or all encompassing but definitely areas of concern for IT. F5's BIG-IP with Oracle® Access Manager to enhance SSO and Access Control: Learn how F5's BIG-IP LTM/APM helps in conjunction with Oracle Access Manager centralizing web application authentication and authorization services, streamline access management, and reduce infrastructure costs Watch how BIG-IP APM can reduce TCO, lower deployment risk, and streamline operational efficiencies for customers along with having a unified point of enforcement to simplify auditing and control changes in configuring application access settings. Bit.ly, Twitter, Security & You: I’ve been using bit.ly for a little while both to shorten links and be able to track clicks placed on twitter (and other social sites) – as many of you do. When the twitter outage hit last week, and many folks found themselves ‘lost’ without it, I decided to review my stats on the bit.ly links I’ve sent and found something interesting; or frightening. The Threat Behind the Firewall: I had a different name for this blog entry but just ‘Jump Drive’ is an awful blog title. They go by many names; jump drive, USB drive, flash drive, memory stick and a few others, but removable media is a serious threat to IT organizations. From consultants, to government employees, to Mortgage lenders, to the International Space Station, what used to be a giveaway staple at trade shows, these tiny less-than-two-inch drives can hit and hurt you in a multitude of ways. Cybercrime, the Easy Way: The Dummies series is a great collection of ‘How to’ instructions on a wide array of topics and while they have not published a ‘Cybercrime for Dummies®’ booklet (and don’t think they will), DYI Cybercrime Kits are helping drive Internet attacks. Gone are the days when you had to visit a dark alley to get a crook’s cookbook. You can get a Cybercrime toolkit to go with your black ski mask, getaway car and evil lair hideout. How Terms Have Changed over Time: Meanings and terms often change or get adjusted over time, especially with Information Technology. While never walking 5 miles to school in two-feet of snow, I did live during an era of TV’s without remotes and vinyl record players. Have a great week! ps
