When we talk about cloud hosting/computing, our primary concern is the level of convenience it provides us. Looking at this aspect from a business perspective, we can say that having the entire details of a business right over the cloud is highly convenient; on the contrary, one also needs to pay attention on the opposite side of the coin as well. “Security” is the word. However, cloud computing or hosting service providers often boast that security is one of their biggest strengths. However, cloud security often falls short of its promises and ultimately fails to prove its efficiency. Let’s analyze with the following points:
Risks involved with Accessibility
When data is available in the cloud, the level of vulnerability is automatically increased. In this environment, special care must be taken to keep the access details highly confidential. The privileges of accessing the cloud must be distributed in a way so that it does not reach any unauthorized hands or minds. Only authorized persons, including some select customers, editors, etc., should have the required protocol. Here one must not fail to achieve proper data segregation as any failure to maintain proper segregation may result in corrupted data.
Risks with Availability of Services
When people resort to cloud computing services, they expect immediate satisfaction. Total or partial unavailability of cloud services is a common problem. There may be several reasons for this. In most cases, cloud service providers lag behind in offering proper back-up options in times of emergency, such as slow processing due to data overloading, power failure/blackout, natural disaster or any other technical issues. Hence, this disrupts the seamless delivery of their services to the customers, who ultimately face the problems of unavailability and incur losses.
Risks of Network Overloading
In cloud computing there are certain things that need to be maintained in a proper way. The proper management and maintenance of the cloud network is one of them. Issues like increasing the load on a cloud network may hamper the performance of the system. As the rate of data motion between the PC memory and disk increases, this might lead to severe crashing of the servers. It is often advised to use cloud servers at no more than 80 percent capacity to avoid problems.
Risks of Identification
Another issue is identifying the proper location of the server on the cloud. Generally, cloud servers do not have a fixed location and are distributed all over the globe. While this may not be a big deal to people who have leveraged the cloud for years, new users may be uncomfortable with their data being distributed all over the place. Again, this issue goes back to security, but the distributed nature of the cloud is just a part of cloud computing. While adopting the latest technology doesn’t always work out, it’s important to see both the pros and the cons so you can make the most informed decision for your company.
