Cloud computing: a barbed rose

Cloud computing is widely regarded as an emerging technology that is expected to dramatically reduce costs and is sought after by a range of companies. But if you really want these companies to explain what is the cloud computing, maybe half a day can not tell why.

Cloud computing for the company omitted part of the computer processing work (and sometimes almost all parts). CIOs feel the company does not have to spend money on internal servers and the IT professionals needed to service the servers, simply by paying outside providers. And then, companies can access the computing infrastructure over the Internet (through the cloud computing environment).

Even better, cloud computing service providers tell us that cloud computing can scale up. A large provider can quickly meet the online customer's request for more computing power. That way, small companies that do not have large data centers themselves can take advantage of the power of cloud computing providers.

The major manufacturers saw this treasure, so have set up departments to provide cloud computing services. Industry leaders include Amazon's EC2 and Google's App Engine. Apart from the excitement of the market, a number of acronyms sprang up like mushrooms. The "next of kin" of cloud computing is Software as a Service (SaaS), where software is provided over the Internet; Salesforce.com is advertising another cloud computing called PaaS.

Nick Carr, an IT expert, cited cloud computing as the inevitable next step in the enterprise computing space in his book The Big Switch. He explained that just as we now get power from the huge power plant outside, we can get computing power from widely distributed external processing centers in the future. Messy internal data center is gone forever. In the future a bright, orderly, reasonable price.

But if you look at the difference between power and data, you'll find Carr's case of a dead end. The current delivered to your company is not classified or sensitive, and the data entering and leaving your company may contain extremely sensitive information. A mere mention of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the intricacies of compliance requirements are enough to convince some CIOs to be frightened by having their own document management, even part of the responsibility, be handed over to cloud computing service providers.

What worries these CIOs even more in the wings is the upset: As cloud-based services grow, they are increasingly being supplied by a string of providers. So here's the situation: You signed a contract with a subcontractor who contracted with a chain of outsourcers, who in turn contracted with another. As a result, those vendors who know nothing about you at the end of the day deal with the most valuable corporate confidential data for you. It's like a school girl in high school does not want to reveal the phone number and only tells the sweetheart who has decided the relationship: the captain of the football team; and her boyfriend posted his address book on the Facebook page so that someone with ulterior motives would know her Phone number.

Two analysts at Gartner, Jay Heiser and Mark Nicolett, co-authored "Assessing Security in Cloud Computing," which lists many of the risk factors in cloud computing.

The theme they want to convey is not to suggest that companies not use cloud computing. Specifically, companies should keep their eyes wide open when adopting cloud computing, fully understand the related risks, and take the necessary precautions to ensure the safety or ensure the safety as much as possible due to the "black box" nature of cloud computing, fullness Unknown factors.

Heiser said: "If people do not have concerns about the risks, cloud computing is probably already more prevalent, and I think most potential users do not really recognize the risks involved, and they all intuitively think it's a new technology; they should not be sloppy treat."

Indeed, Goldman Sachs recently investigated CIOs' plans for 2009 and they feel the economic situation is disturbing next year. The results do not bode well for cloud computing: less than 2% of respondents rated cloud computing as a top priority.

Many of the security issues in cloud computing are enough to raise the question of whether we can not continue using the traditional and reliable client / server architecture. After all, server prices have been falling all the way and there is no stopping trend. IT staff in maintenance work will not necessarily receive as far as outrageous salaries. Why seek the help of the outside world?

Heiser believes that despite these doubts, the cloud computing trend does have the potential to change the industry. The train has left the station despite the CIOs being intimidated by the recession. In short, the benefits of cloud computing can dramatically reduce costs and significantly increase efficiency and flexibility, and the benefits are so obvious that people can not ignore it.

Heiser said: "Cloud computing is basically economically viable, but there are convenience issues."

"There's a control problem here, and I categorize cloud computing and consumerization as another example of how end-users can take the initiative out of their IT department and if they do not like the IT department's offer, Going out and buying it yourself. "For example," Sales managers who are motivated to get out of their IT department and deploy their own CRMs have largely contributed to the rapid growth of Salesforce.com. "

In addition, the purchase of cloud computing services is more in line with the idea of ​​spending money on servers that started aging after they were unpacked. Heiser said: "If you buy cloud computing services, this just takes a small amount of money.If you buy something like a computer, it can be a big investment."

"So the same money, but different in nature; people like to spend money to do something."