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.
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