Data Center Security & The Pitfalls of Cloud Computing

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Data Center Security The Pitfalls of Cloud
Computing
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Data Center Security

• The data center security debate over the risks of
  cloud computing as well as the future of cloud
  computing is underway following an outage of
  Amazons web services.
• This web services outage lasted nearly a week and
  resulted in social media sites such as
  FourSquare, Reddit and Quora as well as a number
  of other Web sites experiencing considerable
  losses.
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Cloud Computing

• Cloud computing is the provision of computational
  resources on demand via a computer network, such
  as applications, databases, file services, email,
  etc.
• In the traditional model of computing, both data
  and software are fully contained on the user's
  computer in cloud computing, the user's computer
  may contain almost no software or data (perhaps a
  minimal operating system and web browser only),
  serving as little more than a display terminal
  for processes occurring on a network of computers
  far away.
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The Pitfalls of Cloud Computing

• Essentially cloud computing allows Amazons
  Elastic Cloud Compute service to host hundreds of
  Web sites remotely. Users rely on these services
  to serve pages as well as store data and account
  information.
• Which means, when Amazons Elastic Compute Cloud
  service encounters a problem so do all the hosted
  sites. In this situation, when Amazons service
  went out users were unable to access their
  accounts and their data.
• This data center security issue is a major
  pitfall for the cloud computing industry, which
  is expected to grow to nearly 60 billion by
  2014.
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The Pitfalls of Cloud Computing

• The length of Amazons cloud service outage was
  surprising to many IT professionals and has made
  people question the reliability of the clouds
  data center security.
• The major benefit of cloud computing is it
  protects users data when their home or business
  computer crashes. However, if the cloud crashes,
  users are left helpless and unable to access
  data.
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Data Centers A Secure Hosting Option

• With the reliability of cloud computing being
  called into question, businesses will have to
  determine what computer operations to host in
  data centers and what operations to host on a
  cloud operated by an external vendor.
• Eventually, businesses may be able to host all
  of their mission-critical applications on the
  cloud but for now data centers remain the more
  reliable and secure hosting option.
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Data Center Security

• Hosting your data, either as primary or back up
  to the cloud, in a quality data center will
  ensure youre equipped with the data center
  security solutions you need to safely and
  reliably run your business.
• Data center security is taken very seriously and
  a quality data center service providers data
  center security solutions are designed and
  deployed to allow customers to focus on their
  core business instead of being distracted by
  escalating security threats and evolving
  compliance requirements.
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Data Center Security

• It is important to choose a data center service
  provider that delivers managed network data
  center security and certified compliance
  solutions as opposed to data centers with
  uncertified partial fixes, or worse, self-audited
  solutions.
• With a quality data center you get holistic
  solutions that eliminate the need for dedicated
  resources or juggling multiple vendors, products,
  and requirements.
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About the Author

• Michael Duckett is President of CoreLink Data
  Centers, a leading provider of data center
  hosting and managed services solutions in
  Chicago, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Seattle. For more
  information about data center security, visit
  http//www.corelink.com/data-center-security-solut
  ions.htm today.
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