We are living in a world full of data. Moreover, we are being tied to them. We want to access them wherever we are, whenever we want and so on. Recently, we can observe new trends. People tend to prefer storing data in the cloud storage instead of storing them on their own devices. Even big companies are moving their infrastructures to the cloud. Enterprises no longer have the luxury of being slow in following this trend. Cloud is cheaper, more flexible and can fulfil almost every scenario we want to try. The cloud can speed up setting up startups with limited budgets, can help schools transform into smart schools and so on.
Are we really prepared to cope with this trend? Before entrusting our precious data to 3rd parties it would be nice to know how safe and reliable they are. In the below article you can find few answers to common questions. Improve your knowledge about encryption, vulnerabilities, SLA and learn about advantages and disadvantages of moving our infrastructure and data to the cloud. Enjoy.
Article
Tying Up Loose Ends in Transitioning to the Cloud
Questions
- What do you think about moving infrastructure to the cloud?
- How can you be more innovative by using the cloud?
- Is cloud storage really reliable?
What do you think about moving infrastructure to the cloud?
ReplyDelete> My personal data is stored on Azure and iCloud. I've already moved to cloud. I can not say much about moving an infrastructure to cloud though. What is the other option ?
How can you be more innovative by using the cloud?
> I guess, it is about spending the time to something more useful than setting up all the infrastructure.
Is cloud storage really reliable?
> While privacy is the global concern, I guess it is reliable.
Thank you for your comments. To answer your first question, you can always move your company infrastructure. If you did that for your personal data, try moving your company/edu data as well.
Delete1.What do you think about moving infrastructure to the cloud?
ReplyDeleteI'd say it's inevitable. Almost everything is moved to the cloud. In the end it's (alomst) all about the price. These days cloud vendors provide a really cheap storage and computing resources comparing to on premise hardware cost.
2.How can you be more innovative by using the cloud?
Innovation may be realized through appliance of the new solutions using cloud => increased effectiveness of the process/solution. Infrastructure itself won't drive innovation, unless cost effectiveness is called as innovation here?
Obastemur made a good point as well - you can forget about setting up infrastructure and focus what you do best.
3.Is cloud storage really reliable?
There are plenty other factors which may compromise use of cloud, e.g. connectivity/access, then none of your cloud resources would be accessible (unless available offline). Cloud vendors have proper high availability and disaster recovery solutions. Amazon is the most advanced when it comes to monitoring cloud resources and anomaly detection. So you may so, that cloud storage is reliable.
I totally agree with your it's cheap, but if we compare costs of dedicated servers with costs of acquiring "real" hardware it's not that cheap. However, you can set up cloud based server in 5 minutes and kill it whenever you want without additional costs.
DeleteAbout reliability, connectivity is the biggest problem, I agree.
As I have already Said several times I love new technology and I am a freak about using it in our everyday life. The cloud issue it is a little bit complicated. Clouds will be used in a dual mode. First of all it can be used in private life. In this case for me this is the best way to store private data. But terrorists and deviants know that typical people store common data such as photos, books, music and videos files. I reckon these issues can be stored in cloud without worrying about their safety and privacy. If we have more” sensitive materials” as for example our girlfriend’s naked photos we can encode it. There are a lot of freeware software to encode files or folders around us. The most important thing of all, I think is using clouds by companies. In the article presented by our colleague there are lots of advantages and disadvantages of using clouds. In my opinion low cost, reliability, flexibility, etc. Are a big advantage of clouds for majority of companies. I recon if reliable providers are chosen customers can feel more secure. Using clouds is more dangerous for governmental institutions. I think country security is more important than the cost and in this case only local storage should be used. Generally I suggest my friends or customers using clouds to be more flexible in private life and in business.
ReplyDeleteThank your for your answer, it's hard to argue with that.
DeleteAbout governements, in this particular case USA. Have you ever seen this: https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/dod/ ?
What do you think about moving infrastructure to the cloud?
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion cloud gives a lot of flexibility to company's infrastructure. The data center or the server room is not needed anymore. The company doesn't have to struggle about hardware. If more resources are needed they can be quickly bought and enabled for using. The same is with shutting it down, it just can be done without additional actions.
I am still a bit afraid about the security of such solutions, but I don't have broad knowledge about it, so maybe that is the reason. From the other hand even the data stored in internal infrastructure can be stolen (there weren't cloud solutions during the times of Mitnick's activities).
And as it was already mentioned, what if the connectivity with the cloud infrastructure will be lost, it could lead to loss for the company.
How can you be more innovative by using the cloud?
For sure with the cloud it is easier to set up different environments and it may be the field for the new ideas and a trigger for trying out different solutions.
Is cloud storage really reliable?
I think I have already answered this question in a first point :)
1.
ReplyDeleteSome of my personal data are stored in the cloud. By some I mean data that aren't really important to me, I don't use cloud for storing my personal pictures and my company documents, I am keeping them on external hard drive, which is not connected to the internet. But when I am putting some stuff to the cloud the data aren't very important, so for example I use Dropbox cloud for storing all my ebooks.
When it comes to cheap storing data and programs which allows you to collaborate with others, cloud is irreplaceable. My company use Google stuff for collaboration and storing documents (not all of them but most) and this solution works really great.
There is little but in this solution, your company has very easy access to all your files that are stored in the cloud. For example Google has very special admin panel in which you can easily reset user password and view GDrive content. So you have to be really careful about content which your are storing on cloud.
2.
I think that there is no real innovation that you can't do with your own machine. Yes cloud is also a computer, but with you can't do any important development with this. If you are doing some stuff for Polish public financial institution KNF will no allow you to store any data in the cloud and the same situation is with collaboration in project.
But when it comes to startup company it can be really great there are lots of tools that allows you to work in group event when it comes to coding and it's often much cheaper than regular tools. And as s14772 said infrastructure won't drive innovation, it can helps you with some stuff but I think that's all.
3.
Is cloud storage really reliable?
No it's not reliable storage. Some time ago my Google account had some problems :-) and not all files were restored by Google. Similar situation was with this solution in my firm. There is also some issues with security (you can read about ICloud). So this solution is not very reliable.
1. What do you think about moving infrastructure to the cloud?
ReplyDeleteAs usual, it depends. It depends on what you mean by "infrastructure". If you meant things like HR or Finance applications or even the sales ones, there is a good deal of SaaS vendors that provide them for you. Smart companies already use them. I am not sure about Small Businesses though.
If you meant something along the lines of core revenue generating web application, then it depends. First of all this type of infrastructure depends on your business activity. If you are running a software house (i.e. building software according to the demand of some entity), it may make sense to move some of your testing environment to a _public_ cloud. Some will argue that one can move the development environment as well. But this poses really high security risk - the risk of loosing your source code, which by definition is your core business. I wouldn't do that.
Going back to revenue generating web site. Well, actually you can have web services for your mobile revenue generating application, or even the desktop one... Anyway, some kind of backend (and oftentimes the frontend as well). What strikes me about the article is they completely ignore things like private and hybrid clouds. It seems that what they are talking about refers primarily to public ones. For small companies it may makes sense to operate your core business completely out of the public cloud (instead of building your own), but this is really risky thing to do.
Of course nobody stops you from serving your "infrastructure" using two different vendors, however it would be costly. Despite the cost, if I were some kind of CIO in a small company, I would carefully consider if I really need to move to the cloud and if the answer seemed yes, I would consciously choose two distinct PaaS providers to ensure continuous operation.
In case of medium and large companies, it may make sense to build a hybrid cloud to increase the capacity of the system when it is required. If that was the case, one vendor would do.
2. How can you be more innovative by using the cloud?
Honestly, I can't answer this question. I don't really see the connection.
3. Is cloud storage really reliable?
Let me reverse this question. Is local storage reliable? I use Dropbox for a few years (and X-Marks, and LastPass)... I believe it is way more reliable than my local hard drive.
Is it more secure?
Probably no, but there is always a balance between security and convenience.
Have your read https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/14/dropbox-denies-logins-hacked-pastebin ?
DeleteWhat do you think about moving infrastructure to the cloud?
ReplyDeleteCloud services are much cheaper than own infrastructure in the company. Do not forget that the cloud service vendor is in most of agreements responsible for backups, availability etc. It means that your organisation do not have to spend money on hiring infrastructure and OS specialists and hardware. Dedicated storage software is not cheap too. In most of cases it is a good idea but as Pawel Dyda said it depends. In some of cases moving your architecture to the cloud might be not a good idea.
How can you be more innovative by using the cloud?
I can be more innovative by integrating software with cloud solution. We can focus more on our services than infrastructure. This is most important I think.
Is cloud storage really reliable?
The weakness point in this kind of solutions are people, who are root cause of problems (weak passwords are leak source). I do not think so is 100% reliable solution exists, so if SLA over 99,9% is really reliable for you - then answer is yes.
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ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeletethanks for this interesting article. It is quite practical and I have to admit I have never thought that cloud is such a complex issue.
1. I think that there are companies, which due to the security issues, will not be eager to use the cloud. The cost is not the most important criterion novadays. As it has been mentioned there appears a need to protect other security issues like migration between cloud vendors therefore the these aspects will still play an important role. However, it further seems to be the best solution for small - medium entreprises and start-ups.
2. How can you be more innovative by using the cloud?
Cloud clients can run their business from anywhere in the world and involve people from, for an example, the whole country.
3. Is cloud storage really reliable?
It depends on the vendor we choose, our knowlegde of the cloud security issues, good plan of the deployment of the cloud in the company (some emergency plans). Its reliability depends mainly on our skills.
1.What do you think about moving infrastructure to the cloud?
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion we can use this but only for project which we don't have security issues . When we have security issues in my opinion more sustainable use company infrastructure.
2.How can you be more innovative by using the cloud?
In my opinion we can set up or add some settings from place which we have only internet.
3.Is cloud storage really reliable?
In my opinion yes, cloud storage really reliable
"In my opinion we can use this but only for project which we don't have security issues . When we have security issues in my opinion more sustainable use company infrastructure."
DeleteWhat do you think about Disaster Recovery in company infrastructure? Cloud is safe most of the time, Azure backup your data between datacenters for example.
Cloud computing is a new paradigm that aims to allow remote access and dynamic way to a set of computing resources as a service. Several types of services (software or hardware) are offered to customers as part of cloud computing. We then talk about software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and even networking as a Service (NaaS). This service offering must be ensured in the context of cloud computing with minimal human intervention in terms of installation, configuration, and maintenance and generally in terms of management functions. Thus, we will appeal to the concepts of self (Self-Management) arising from the Autonomic Computing paradigm to optimize and automate the various management functions in the cloud. On the other hand, several vendors offer in an environment of cloud computing services similar. It becomes difficult for the user to choose the provider that best suits their needs. An element of differentiation between different cloud environments is the level of service that will be guaranteed by this environment. This level of service can be established between the supplier and the customer through a contract (SLA: Service Level Agreement) with the technical part is specified through an SLS (Service Level Specification). The level of service to be guaranteed as part of a cloud environment can affect not only the QoS (Quality of Service) but also the safety and mobility. On the other hand, if the supplier in a Cloud Computing environment uses multiple Clouds, guarantee service levels must be ensured from end to end through the various Clouds concerned by the offer. Thus, the agreement between Clouds can be negotiated in a dynamic way and the corresponding level of service will be guaranteed through the application of the concepts of self to the Clouds. Indeed, the autonomy of networks whose management is now clearly oriented service must include the dynamic negotiation of the service level, a necessary step before the automatic service provision as part of cloud computing.
ReplyDeleteA picture of a hard disk drive, the storage capacity of a cloud service is an important factor that should not be underestimated insofar as the data have rather to accumulate over months . It rarely removes old photos, for example, and the storage capacity must be able to easily change over time.
If initially offer 20 or 50 GB simply, check whether the company offers packages with greater storage capacity and at what price. It would be a shame to move all your data to another service if that were not the case.
cloud storage is really reliable
I think nowadays more corporations tend to outsource a lot of things that are not their "core business". Obviously, apart from major vendors, hardware and software is not a core business for most companies. As it was mentioned before, company can focus on it's activity instead of hiring and managing admins' team, buying hardware and licences.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of security I assume that finding IT security specialist on the market, better than the ones hired by cloud vendors can be expensive and time consuming. Also big companies are as much interesting for hackers as major players in the cloud.
In my opinion moving to the cloud isn't innovative by itself. It's just a matter of tools you use to get the job done. It scales faster as long as it's affordable for the company.
I think that cloud is quite reliable, vendors have clear uptime SLAs and backup data regularly. Personally I store some data in the cloud, but I also use good old external hard disk drive. For increased security I backup vulnerable data in the cloud in an encrypted container.
If you backup your data in an encrypted containers, can you give us some examples?
DeleteI use Veracrypt to create a file which is mounted as a local drive, I put my vulnerable data there and encrypt it with AES+Twofish+Serpent with very, very long password. And I backup the file, not the data itself.
DeleteI realize that cloud storage is supposed to be safe, but still, it's not a big effort to secure it with this method.
I use Veracrypt to create a file which is mounted as a local drive, I put my vulnerable data there and encrypt it with AES+Twofish+Serpent with very, very long password. And I backup the file, not the data itself.
DeleteI realize that cloud storage is supposed to be safe, but still, it's not a big effort to secure it with this method.
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ReplyDeleteCloud is the future. We may not want to be, but it will. Mostly because of pricing and flexibility. Using cloud infrastructure we can setup everything to our needs and thanks to that we can lower all costs. Nowadays this the key to success. I don't think that we can make anything realted with cloud more innovative, currently we are blocked by technology BUT cloud can help us to become more innovative by giving is more computing power. Thanks to cloud we can have so much computing power that in the past was just a dream. Thanks to day we can push our research.
ReplyDeleteI think that currently we are far away from the moment when cloud wasn't safe. Thanks to data propagation, multiple server, nodes etc everything is perfectly safe
Hi, thanks for your article proposition. Here are my answers:
ReplyDelete1. As time passes by, you can find more and more services moving to the cloud. This trend is still accelerating and therefore a natural and instinctive turn of things. However this technology is not always beneficial. The effort put into moving the infrastructure to the cloud might occur to outweigh the benefits it could later provide.
2. You can come up with solving things differently than the popular existing solutions for odler technologies, and it might occur that it's a much better approach in this new environment.
3. I would say that currently it more reliable than standard solutions however its not ideal.
just fixing some typos:
Delete*older
*it is
WTB Post editor :)
Delete1. What do you think about moving infrastructure to the cloud?
ReplyDeleteI've been using Microsoft Azure infrastructure since 2012 and I am a really big fan of moving to the cloud - it is easy to deploy, easy to scale, cheap (OK, that depends on the scale but let's don't dig too deep right now ;-))
2. How can you be more innovative by using the cloud?
From the business perspective the innovation is in being flexible as you never now when you need to pivot. And using the cloud helps. From the tech perspective, architects need to focus on resource usage before implementation starts so the whole solution should be well thought. That leads to be more innovative and use services provided by the particular cloud infrastructure wisely.
3. Is cloud storage really reliable?
From my point of view it is as reliable as developers and DevOps make it reliable. Cloud doesn't release developers from thinking ;-) The should use backups, redundant storage and all standard things to assure that it is safe to use it. I like the idea of a checklist presented in the article.
I think that, the beginnings of cloud infrastructure were heavy. But now the cloud technology is cheaper, safer than before.
ReplyDeleteWe need to be careful looking for solutions in the cloud. You have to use the best systems.
A good idea is buy private cloud services, we have more possibilities eg configuration. Cloud solutions have advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages is easy scalability, we do not worry too about hardware
I think it’s quite good idea. Since some time we can see a systematic increase in use of cloud technology, mainly due to low maintenance costs as well as the comfort of use. We get the product ready for use :), but as it happens in life, every positive is met with some negative. No network connection means the lack of connections with the cloud or difficulties at work, which for some will be insignificant and for others may be a major issue.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that without internet you can have some serious issues. However, consider that most big companies are spread between cities, countries and so on. Even with our own infrastructure it's hard to prevent exactly the same issues.
DeleteIt is impossible to express my opinion about that topic in only a few sentences. Recently I wrote an article about that.
ReplyDeleteArticle raises issue of the impact of services Cloud computing on the economic efficiency of enterprises. Draws primarily attention to the benefits they relate, especially the flexibility to use cloud computing resources without having to make additional investments in their IT infrastructure. The article also raises the question of the risks associated with the use in the service of question.
It concerns mainly the loss of data, which may be disadvantageous for the company also economic consequences. Overall, however, it is estimated that the benefits of using Cloud services computing outweigh the risks.
I will present that article at conference : WSPÓŁCZESNE WYZWANIA E-GOSPODARKI.
It's good to know that people are talking about clouds. Good luck on your presentation.
DeleteWhat do you think about moving infrastructure to the cloud?
ReplyDeleteMoving infrastructure to the cloud is a natural step for most companies. Cloud services are a prefect solution for small/medium companies, especially startups. Managing own data center requires far more resources than using cloud services. As previous commenters mentioned companies should focus on their core business and try to outsource everything else.
How can you be more innovative by using the cloud?
You need to use the services provided by cloud vendor in a creative way. There isn’t an easy way to do this. You need to know what exactly you want to build, and have a good knowledge of the services offered by the provider. Here’s an interesting example of an innovative cloud usage - an article showcasing how Spotify migrated to Google Cloud Pub Sub to build a new version of their Event Delivery System: https://labs.spotify.com/2016/02/25/spotifys-event-delivery-the-road-to-the-cloud-part-i/.
Is cloud storage really reliable?
Yes, definitely. Still, I think that keeping regular HDD back for disaster recovery scenarios is essential in every company.
Thank you for the article. Most of the companies are using tapes for backup :) HDD is too small, check this : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_3592
DeleteWhat does exactly mean "moving infrastructure to cloud"? There are already some programs that cannot be activated without authorization in cloud. Moreover, imagine that enterprise support provided by one of the most known companies knows about every issue with their devices in other companies. Maybe it doesn't fit to pure definition of cloud, by it's only one step from it. In my opinion there is no other way than getting familiar with business permanently connected to cloud(s). Can you be more innovative? For sure, if you know how to take an advantage of this technology.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't fully reliable but which part of IT really is?
That's why we have something called risk management. Anyway, you can't prevent hackers from accessing your account, but you can make stronger passwords, use dual-authentication and so on. You can buy backup data centers and so on. We can try to make everything we can to make our environment reliable and still fail.
DeleteI’ve had a skeptical when first clouds appeared on the network. I had been learning new opportunities clouds. Today, I see the great contribution that can give cloud for a new business. Clouds ensure lower costs and access the network from around the world. If you do not manage to business, in the cloud you will incur a lower cost. It is a good for innovation. In addition, your employees may be scattered over the world. Whatever today is really safe? Only when it is not anyone needed.
ReplyDeleteNothing is really safe, there is always a way to access data. Every piece of software can be abused.
Delete1.What do you think about moving infrastructure to the cloud?
ReplyDeleteIn to the private cloud ok for all prupose
But in to the public its not safe for some kind of projects. (developer, research, state etc.)
Solution: hybrid cloud.
2.How can you be more innovative by using the cloud?
No need IT staff and infrastructure for business start - only internet
3.Is cloud storage really reliable?
Not for all pruposes.
What do you think about moving infrastructure to the cloud?
ReplyDeleteThat's good to have opportunity to store important data in safety place. However personally I would prefer to store sensitive information in more safety place like encrypted SSD. Imagine that you are citizen of USA and you want to store important information about government. Would you prefer to use cloud stored and manufacturer in Russia? In my opinion physically information should be close.
How can you be more innovative by using the cloud?
In my personal life I like to store phone backup in cloud. With that feature I can share my files with others, backup information if something would happen with phone or just add files from another device.
Is cloud storage really reliable?
As I mentioned before it depends on cloud owner and politics. If owner are trustworthy and reliable then we can take a chance, since advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
1.What do you think about moving infrastructure to the cloud?
ReplyDeleteIf we speak about purely administrative data then yes, I would use cloud. At the same time when it comes to what is related to a company’s core business or sensitive customers’ data I would certainly not use cloud to store it.
2.How can you be more innovative by using the cloud?
There might be two ways of understanding this question. If you ask about innovative features to be implemented, my answer is more devices improving security. If your intention is to ask how using the cloud can increase creativity within a company then I would say that, because only an internet connection is needed, a company does not need to invest in the IT infrastructure and thus can focus on its core business.
3.Is cloud storage really reliable?
I would not store company’s core business or sensitive customers’ data on cloud servers. I might however think about encrypted containers to store less sensitive data.