Still Have Questions about Cloud Security? You're Not Alone.

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A recent study from Trend Micro underscores a major concern that still lurks as cloud adoption takes off: security. According to the survey, 43 percent of respondents experienced a security issue with their cloud service provider over the past year—and the number of security incidents can only be expected to grow as cloud usage does. What’s behind this lack of security?

For one thing, Trend Micro’s survey found that some enterprises don’t even recognize that they’re working with cloud computing services—clearly a prerequisite to putting cloud security measures in place.

More significantly, it seems that many cloud service providers just haven’t yet made the investment in IT resources dedicated to security. On the flip side, maybe cloud computing customers have yet to demand better security and motivate providers to make the needed improvements.

With all of this cloud “insecurity,” the IT community so far isn’t proclaiming, “Yay, cloud!” quite as enthusiastically as the actress in one of the current Microsoft TV ads. So, what’s a business to do when it comes to data it’s storing in the cloud? Here are a few starting points:

1. Understand whether your storage solution is, indeed, cloud based so that you know whether special measures are needed to secure your data.
   
   
2. Look critically at the security, performance and availability of your provider’s solution and any other solution you’re considering.
   
   
3. Encrypt, with care. Eighty-five percent of respondents in the Trend Micro survey said they encrypt data stored in the cloud—and you should, too. At the same time, recognize that most commonly used encryption key management techniques used in the cloud today are vulnerable to security threats. Specialized security solutions are available specifically to protect data in the cloud.
   
   
4. Maintain a balanced enterprise storage strategy. With all of the uncertainty surrounding cloud storage, tape and vault management solutions—with their proven security, reliability and cost-effectiveness—along with disk and secure cloud solutions all have a role to play in securely storing your data.

Security will continue to be an issue with cloud computing. There are products, such as our VaultLedger OnDemand, that provide the highest levels of security while also providing and easy-to-use interface. But ultimately it will be up to IT managers to perform the due diligence necessary to ensure the safety of their data. 

Comments

[Javis Lounsbury]

The key here then is to back-up and encrypt. Most companies sort the data and classify where each will be stored (in the cloud, or on the servers). There's so much to anticipate and expect about security in cloud computing. For now, companies should always keep a heads-up by making sure that their data management is at par with industry standards.