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Every day our lives get more and more connected online which has made our lives easier, but at the same time, has put us more at risk as more of our sensitive information is stored online. With IPv6 right around the corner, which will be able to support an almost infinite number of IP addresses, we will only be more connected, and therefore, more at risk.
On a personal basis, I’m the first to admit that online services such as banking, travel and email, to name a few, have made our lives easier. On a professional basis, as businesses push more services online to expand their marketplace, conversely, they are also making themselves more susceptible to data breaches from hackers. Hosting providers are pushing the envelope by trying to get their customers to accept cloud services: email, applications and storage to name a few. Some of these providers such as Google and Amazon have been successful in selling their cloud based services to small business and have now started making headway in to the enterprise segment of the marketplace. Their services also allow you to access your information anywhere you have web access. Their services are great for non-core, non-critical applications that won’t impact your business in the event their service goes down and you are unable to access your applications or data.
While every company is talking about cloud services, not many are acting on it. According to a white paper published by Gartner called Hype Cycles of Emerging Technologies, 2009, the most hyped technology was cloud computing.
Why is this technology “hyped” and not being accepted with open arms? The hack against Googles intellectual property last month should give you a pretty good idea as to why cloud services are still vulnerable.
If you decide to move in to cloud services, don’t push all of your applications online. Start slow. Test a non-critical application first, or store non-critical data in the cloud that will help off-load space on your storage platform. If you lose the application or the data, you’ll probably be upset over this mishap, but your life and the business will move on. From there, look at moving parts of your development environment online and start testing other applications to see how they perform online and how well you can secure the data. When testing these applications in the cloud, always be skeptical of who will access your data and how. Don’t move at the pace your providers want you to move at. Move at the pace that you’re comfortable with and that will protect your intellectual property and your company’s (and customers) sensitive information.
In a Newsweek article recently published by Daniel Lyons called “Where Secrets Aren’t Safe”, he mentions, “Information is not at all like electricity. Electricity is a cheap, dumb commodity. Nobody wants to steal your electricity, and even if someone did, who cares? Information, on the other hand, may be the most precious thing your company has.”