Friday Cloud News Roundup
Cloud Expansion is Good, But People Still Need to Ask and Tell “Why”
Technology allows innovation and improvement, and now that companies have been largely subjected to “cloudwashing”, C-level executives might have overlooked the true purpose of the cloud.
An article in sys-con media talks about the deployment of cloud-for-cloud’s-sake instead of truly using the solution to plan for the future.
This is a point of concern, the author views the high level mindset to be looking at new technology as beautiful new carts with exceptional quality of its components. The IT mindset, according to the author, instead sees new technology as the horse that powers whatever cart the company wants to pull.
Basically, this article encourages corporations to entertain the “why” before deploying any new system. Read the full version of this article at sys-con media.
Legal Concerns on the Cloud
The Oregon State Bar has responded to the going legal concern on the extremely fast growing of cloud computing. Last December 2011, the state ethics committee released the Oregon Rules of Professional Responsibility of Competence and Confidentiality, which lawyers need to strictly comply to.
The objective of the directives is to ensure confidentiality and security of materials being expressed through:
- The vendor’s preservation of confidentiality by including it in the service agreement
- Transparency of the vendor to the lawyer should they encounter unauthorized third party access to materials
- The lawyer’s investigation of how the vendor backs up and stores data and metadata
It was explained that though third party vendors have their own security measures, the organization’s regulations will allow for flexibility to protect data and withstand the test of time should the vendor’s security become obsolete.
Visit the Daily Record to read the comprehensive article about the policies. This will also provide information on which ethics committees have made the necessary move to further protect data.
FedRAMP Watch
In the continued enforcing of the agency-wide standardization of cloud computing security requirements, the Federal CIO Council has released more that 150 new controls in new categories.
Aside from the on-going risk assessments and continuous monitoring, the council believes that these regulations will help in the implementation of FedRAMP. These standards were curated from a joint feedback from those in the industry and government. Some categories covered by the policy are:
- Access control
- Incident response
- Audit and accountability
- Contingency planning
- Risk assessment
Read the full article in the Information Week and see the rest of the categories that are included in the list of requirements.
Better Opportunities With the Cloud
A video posted in Huffington Post entitled Portraits of a Smarter Planet shows Lauren States, VP for Cloud Computing at IBM, as she discusses how much cloud computing has helped businesses.
She mainly stressed on the cost savings from maintenance that allows a business to use those funds to increase profitability. Some instances given were:
- Telecommunications Industry – ability to bring more services quickly, efficiently at less costs
- Healthcare Industry – allows capacity on demand, discovery of genomic patterns and product research and development
- Individual User – allows them to use a simple, elegant interface to a vast IT infrastructure
This short video shows that technology truly allows new ideas to flourish. To watch the full video, click here.
Useful Cloud Applications
A basic but very helpful article in Host Review revisits the various applications that can be used in the cloud. As we all know, cloud computing can be applied to almost all spheres of business activities that delivers great value.
Here are some applications and uses of the cloud:
- General and processing software
- Access of applications and data from anywhere at any time
- Brings down hardware costs
- Photo editing and access to digital videos
- Anti virus applications on the internet
- Online file storage
Any industry whether IT, finance or even service can surely have at least one application that wil get much benefit from the cloud.
To read the full article, visit the site.
Encryption As A Service
An article in savidtech.com was written in reference to Gartner’s prediction that 1,000 companies will store customer data in the public cloud this year, which attributes a 50% increase. It discussed how cloud encryption or Encryption as a Service (EaaS) is being used by more global firms to enable them to leverage on the public cloud.
The author gave an overview of the EaaS:
- There are multiple types of encryption: VM, API Proxy, File-based
- Stays up-to-date with data sources and destinations the encryption technology works with
- Allows companies to use their own key management system
Learn more on cloud encryption and how it helps companies secure sensitive data. Visit Savidtech now.
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