To hear some people talk, cloud computing is a religious experience. Go to the cloud, they say, a look almost of rapture in their eyes. One can hear the “aums” being chanted in the background.
The world being what it is, the cloud computing evangelists are nicely balanced by shrieking apocalyptic prophets who warn, in predictably colorful language that doesn’t bear repeating, about security threats from fascist pigs who will own you and your data.
Of course, the truth about cloud computing is somewhere between these two extremes. Cloud computing is probably a very good idea for some businesses and applications and a rather ill-considered idea for others.
So what is cloud computing? The National Institute of Standards and Technology, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, defines cloud computing as “a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.”
What does all of that mean? It’s no great mystery, and it’s certainly not water vapor. To paraphrase Larry Ellison, CEO and co-founder of Oracle, cloud computing is just a network attached to a computer. The cloud is nothing more than databases and operating systems and memory and binomial processors and the Internet.
The key for the cloud is, of course, the Internet. Without the Internet there is no cloud. And that’s where cloud computing got its name. Traditionally, a cloud drawing was used to represent the Internet in computer network diagrams. (Before that, the cloud was used to represent the telephone network.)
The idea behind cloud computing is that you or your company need not own all the software and hardware necessary to run your business or watch videos or connect to friends. (Social networking is a big part of the cloud.) You can store your data – from customer profiles to inventory to employee records to family vacation photos – not on your hard drive in your office or your kitchen, but on the server belonging to your cloud host. You host does all the backups and maintenance and updates, saving you time and money.
But wait, there’s more! You get as much or as little storage as you need. Instantly. Not only that, you can sign up for countless apps to manipulate that data. And every time a new app is created or an old app is updated, you have access to it immediately. And, even better, you only pay for the services you use.
What kind of services are we talking about? When it comes to the cloud, there are three basic service models: Software as a Service (SaaS); Platform as a Service (PaaS); and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
SaaS. Instead of buying and installing software to perform basic business activities, such as CRM, HR functions, computerized billing, invoicing, content management, and document management, cloud customers buy those applications from a cloud host through either a regular subscription or a “pay-as-you-go” program.
PaaS. The cloud host provides and manages software and product development tools. Developers can create applications on the host’s platform over the Internet. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and possibly application hosting environment configurations.
IaaS. The cloud host provides and maintains the equipment needed to support operations, including storage, hardware, servers and networking components. The consumer typically pays on a per-use basis.
Okay, it sounds great, so there must be drawbacks. Well, of course there are. Despite what cloud evangelists imply, you still need equipment. You need some sort of computer to plug into the Internet. And that computer will need to be maintained and updated periodically. The cloud won’t do that for you. And when your cloud host updates its software and apps, you don’t have the option to stick with the older versions of programs. So you still need to learn new products regularly.
As for those applications you create on the cloud provider’s platform, be sure to read your user agreement carefully. Some providers may not allow you to move your software off their platform. And there may be problems with interoperability or data portability in the cloud.
But the biggest drawback to cloud computing is security. At a recent conference of Black Hat USA, speakers warned that moving your data to a cloud service is the equivalent of “putting all your eggs in one basket.” Hmmm. That doesn’t sound good. What if the president decides to shut down the Internet in the face of a cyberthreat, as some have claimed could happen if Congress passes the latest cybersecurity bill?
Think government interference is far-fetched? Government intervention in cloud computing is “the big elephant in the room that no one will talk about,” according to Adi Shamir, professor of mathematics and computer science at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science. (Shamir, incidentally, is one of the inventors of the RSA algorithm, one of the first great advances in public key cryptography.)
The Black Hat experts also warned about the vulnerability of web services, password insecurity, and encryption flaws as some of the other weaknesses associated with cloud computing.
While eventually cloud computing may be as safe and reliable as any computing platform – perhaps even safer – it’s still a good idea to follow this advice from high tech consultant Geoffrey Moore: If the business practice is context- and non-mission-critical, then go ahead and put it in the cloud. If it is context- and mission-critical, you can probably put it in the cloud. But – and this is an important BUT – if it is core and non-mission-critical, you may want to think about keeping it behind the firewall. If it is core and mission-critical, then definitely keep it behind your own firewall.