Security implications of cloud storage (next)

Mildenhall said he was confident about Amazon's services, but he was still concerned about the security of the data. If you want to host business data to Amazon's storage service, he says he will need a mechanism to ensure that copies of the data are replicated and migrated back to his data center. Mildenhall said: "We dare not say that the copy of the data in the cloud is the only copy I get." ”

Fear of "locking" the data is another worry. Each storage service provider has its own proprietary application programming interface. In some cases, the user will also need to define the metadata associated with the dataset, such as information or security parameters that are too long-lived. But Ruth says storage service providers will also address this issue in a different way. "You don't need a specific interface to make these services work." "he said. Manufacturers are beginning to work on standards to solve the problem.

The lack of a common application programming interface can cause users a lot of trouble if the storage service provider suddenly fails or shuts down. Of course, this is possible if you are in the early stages of a start-up. "Once you reach a partnership agreement with a service provider, you certainly want them to never fail," Ruth said. ”

Manjit Singh is not worried about how to migrate data back, but whether he can access the data if the supplier fails. "If the supplier goes bankrupt, the creditor will only come to you and take the equipment away," said Singh, chief information officer of Chiquita International Group. They don't care what data is in the device. "So he has not tried to use the cloud storage service.

Rich Zoch is experimenting with Zetta storage services at the University of Texas at Austin, but not for primary storage. "It's really a great platform for downloading encrypted backup files," said Zoch, a senior system administrator. "But so far he can only trust cloud storage services in the" pseudo data "store. He said he intended to replace tapes by using cloud storage for backup of level two storage pools.

Zoch said he appreciated Zetta's use of public key encryption, a move that was consistent with the Federal Information Processing Standard 140-2, but the University of Texas chose to encrypt the data before transferring it to the cloud. Since he only uses Zetta services in the two-level storage copy process, he is not worried about whether the data can be replicated back to the local data center if something zetta happens.

If the communication channel is too small, it may be impractical to migrate large amounts of data from the cloud storage vendor's products. Jeff Treuhaft, co-founder and CEO of Zetta, said: "If you can only carry 1MB or 2MB per second transmission, it may take months or even years to migrate your data back." He said that the Zetta service cost would need to be increased by 25% for the purpose of establishing a connection and transmitting the data in a timely manner.

Even if you can store data, storage and service applications like Zmanda's backup and recovery systems will store data on the back end of a third-party platform, such as S3. So, Singh says, you need to dutifully verify where the data is hosted, how the data is managed, and how to migrate the data back. But, he says, this is no different from verifying how "software and services" vendors store data.

What is the best way to use an external cloud storage service? "You have to trust their services, but verification of services is still an essential step," Ruth said. "That means you should go to the data Center for a tour, find out what data is stored, agree on meaningful metrics with service providers, and conduct regular audits, which is the level of service agreement you need to sign up to make sure that your data is committed by the manufacturer. If the storage and service vendor uses a Third-party product as the storage infrastructure, you will also need to conduct a detailed inspection of the services of the third party vendor.

Despite these challenges, most users see the bright future of cloud storage. Singh said that if the original file server had to be replaced, he believed that cloud storage would play the role of file services. Others view the cloud as a viable way to make remote office backups.

Mildenhall said he thought cloud storage would also play a bigger role in the Apollo site. "Apollo will be responsible for putting the shared files and emails in the cloud," he said. Mildenhall says he envisions that one day core business data can also be stored in the cloud. As long as all of the things have been backed up.

Finally, Ruth says, IT companies can use cloud storage to replace additional data centers, hosting copies of critical data. But he added: "They need to overcome the idea of moving data out of the plant." ”