by Angela Guess
Peter Alpern recently debunked five common myths regarding cloud based data. Alpern writes, “For all the excitement and buzz created by cloud computing, the very idea of customers being able to access information in big data centers remotely over the Internet from anywhere has also spawned a fair share of questions, concerns and myths. But that skepticism, about its security, compliance and visibility, has been widely overblown, says Michael Hugos, a former CIO and a principal of the Center for Systems Innovation… The evolutionary shift toward cloud technology will span several years, even a decade or more, some analysts say. Hugos believes people set the pace of
technology adoption, and corporate data centers are filled with people whose skills and livelihood are fundamentally based on older technologies and mindsets.”
The first myth Alpern addresses is that data security issues make cloud applications riskier than in-house applications: “According to Hugos, the continuous harping on data security has more to do with threatening IT jobs than it does to any real security issue. This might not comfort companies that see high-profile attacks on companies such as Citigroup and Sony. But that misses a more important point, says Hugos. ‘When private companies get hacked, it’s rare they even discuss it,’ he says. ‘If they’re not publicly traded, they don’t even have to divulge that information. The notion that a Google or an Amazon isn’t as good at data security as some small company is nonsensical. Their systems are being attacked hundreds or thousands of times every day, and they have a highly trained and continuously engaged security force who are learning the latest tricks that hackers are using.’”
photo credit: MacKinnon Photography
