Cloud Hosting Security – Best Practices
Public & Private Cloud Security
“Cloud”, not just a term anymore, it has shaken the entire IT world and is now being considered to be the future computing methodology. A lot of research is being done in this area at almost every levels. Based on the Gartner Analysis, by the year 2013, the revenue generated through cloud is expected to cross $150 billion. There has been an increasing number of companies that have plunged into this field and are working towards further securing the cloud hosting offerings. From an IT persons perspective, there cannot be an environment that would be 100% secure. But, yes, certain security measures can be taken when switching over to cloud and analyzing the security threats at different levels. Switching over to a cloud can instead be considered to be better secure than the traditional in-house solutions. When opting for a cloud hosting (Public as well as Private Cloud ) alternative offered by a company, it is necessary to consider the security protocol’s they use with their service offering and weighting this a level higher than the price at which these solutions are offered.
Security Concerns about Public Clouds
With regards to the cloud hosting environment, specifically with public cloud, an end user customer gets to experience an environment that is largely automated. The users can upload and control the applications and data placed in the cloud environment.
There exists a large difference in the visibility and the control that is achieved with Public and Private Cloud solutions. One needs to give up a certain extent of control over the processing location when using the public cloud. Whereas with private cloud, there are lesser number of individuals that share resources but have a better control. Certain recommended practices can be adopted by an organization to manage the security related threats when using both the cloud hosting environments.
Best Practices of Cloud Hosting
Constituting the identity management controls can be considered as an important first step. Every member in an organization must adhere strictly to the rules laden for password creation protocols. It is quite disturbing to see the large number of individuals using passwords that are very easy to guess/crack, for example: abc123, password, qwerty etc. To add more to the surprise is its use at the highly sensitive data access points.
The information can be stored at a single location by implementing LDAP controls and administering the credentials.
Once this process is adhered within an organization, one can get onto analyzing the tasks that have been outsourced to a third party firm. It is your responsibility as a business owner, to ensure that the third party firm to whom you’ve outsourced the tasks, follows your security protocols and helps you keeping your mission critical data safe from leaking out to unwanted sources. You must look for a provider that uses the most reliable data encryption tools for keeping your data safe and secure. They must also be capable for making use of the latest and most trusted firewalls and intrusion detection and alarming system with their solution offerings.
Judicial Aspects of Cloud Storage
Various legal constraints comes bundled with data storage, specifically about the personally identifiable information or PII. Despite the fact that the data is placed in the Cloud, the rules are still applicable on the servers geo-locations. Few nations alike the one’s in Europe, have laden strict data security norms which poses limitations to the data storage locations and to the destination where it can be moved. Hence opting for a Cloud Hosting provider who is well aware of these rules and regulations and adheres to it as well, should necessarily be chosen.
Choosing the Right Cloud Hosting Partner
A number of different SME’s have started to try their luck by offering Cloud hosting and computing services. These necessarily need not have the essential expertise, skilled professional staff or required hardware peripherals. Therefore, it is your duty to ask the potential service provider certain queries and faq’s which can make you aware about their knowledge, expertise and their market standings. Also check for the locations where the company is operational and the locations of their backup servers, ideally the dc should be at a safer distant location to handle disaster recovery requirements if needed.
Summary :
Choosing a reliable Cloud provider who is known to have implemented the standard security measures for public, private cloud as well as shared cloud can be beneficial for your business website to achieve a safer experience. The host should be efficient and willing to adapt to newer and better tools of secure storage and management for their Cloud offerings. Additional and improved security measures should be adopted as and when they are released by the related technology vendors. This should help you keep your data safer in the clouds and safeguard your customers data from thefts and leaks, hence ensuring optimum trust and security.
