The Risks of Cloud Computing

The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) published its Cloud Computing Risk Assessment Report which derived data from Educational Organizations, Industry Experts and Government Organizations. The biggest risk identified was likelihood of being locked into a cloudbased solution, with many companies not offering the tools, standardized formats or procedures to provide data and service portability. This makes the task of moving back to an in-house architecture or a to another service provider difficult at best. The second risk area of concern is the inability to isolate failures due to the shared resource approach by cloud service providers. Failure protocols which separate storage, memory and routing are often not offered in the cloud computing environment, making fault isolation difficult if not impossible with an attack on the operating system. The third risk area identified is a compromised management interface which is accessible via the internet, provided a larger risk of exposure than a traditional in-house model. The report provides some serious food for thought as companies look at their list of pros vs. cons when deciding on their computing strategy.
Related Link:
http://web2.sys-con.com/node/1198718

10 Things I Hate About My Wireless Carrier

As AT&T responds with their legal team to recent Verizon television ads that make their 3G coverage look bad, there are still plenty of things to dislike about your chosen wireless carrier. For 2009 spotty coverage is still a huge problem in America, even worse if you would like to use all of the data features of your new smart phone. Want to change carriers? Better think twice. The penalties are stiff for leaving your wireless contract earlier. To add injury to the insult, Verizon doubled its early termination fees this week.

Let’s examine the the quality of the phones offered. Unfortunately, except for iPhone, most of the mobile phones offered don’t deliver the performance as advertised. The 3G networks have limited coverage and you still get the privilege of paying a $20 to $30 per month up charge. Theoretically competition is supposed to drive down prices; however there must not really be much competition because prices remain sky high. Even texting costs a lot considering the limited bandwidth that text really requires from the carriers. Spotty coverage with dropped calls stills happens routinely and limited 3G coverage, and dead zones today’s norm which should not be the standard for a supposedly mature industry. The carriers in Europe and Asian provide a much higher level of service. Unfortunately for Americans, improved service is not just around the corner. Even though the iPhone is starting to have a little competition from Motorola’s Droid and of course the Palm Pre, the fact is that the network behind them is still pretty weak. It seems the carriers would rather invest in snappy ads instead of investing the infrastructure itself.