Cloud computing: secure or not?

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 21 July 2010 19:23

Business IT - Security

We keep hearing that security is one of the main factors discouraging cloud adoption, but are these concerns well founded?

A recent survey of Information Systems Audit and Control Association members in Australia and New Zealand found almost half of the respondents think the risks of cloud computing outweigh the benefits, and only 10% plan to use it for mission-critical services.

Security is "probably the biggest barrier to cloud adoption," Ajei Gopal, executive vice president of CA Technologies' development and technology group, told the company's customers in Melbourne yesterday.

He said CA will take a three-pronged approach: security to, for, and from the cloud. Existing products will be extended to help secure the cloud, tools will be developed for cloud providers, and CA will offer cloud-based security services.

"Every vendor is making promises [about the cloud], CA is delivering," he claimed.

Fujitsu is making a serious play as a cloud provider, and Cameron McNaught, executive general manager of Fujitsu ANZ, noted that "the perception of security in the cloud is holding people back." But he suggested that there are a variety of applications that could be run in a public cloud just as securely as they are in on-premises environments.

What's Fujitsu planning? Please read on.