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Even in mid-2016, very few who are serious about cloud computing will tell customers that out of the box public cloud services are as secure as their corporate data centres. At the same time no-one would suggest introducing mission critical applications and data into a brand new data centre environment without first planning and implementing proper physical, network, server, and application security controls.

Many organisations distrust moving corporate data and application assets into the public cloud. Loss of control of these assets is the most common reason stated; this is code for loss of control over the security aspects of the environment. To answer this, public cloud providers have developed some form of Shared Security Responsibility model.

For example, Amazon Web Services states that they are responsible for security of the physical plant as well as the separation between accounts or instances, while customers are responsible for building security into the solutions they deploy into their cloud account or instance. In other words, AWS is responsible for the security “of” the cloud and the customer is responsible for security “in” the cloud.

An often used solution that many organisations undertake in the separation of front end or presentation layers and the data aspects of a service into a hybrid cloud. This does not preclude any security deployment best practices that we will speak about but provides a level of comfort for organisations that their data is under their lock-and-key.  While hybrid cloud does not provide as much costreduction, flexibility or elasticity as “going public”, it does help the customer organisation feel more secure, in their decision.

Given the customer’s responsibility of security “in” the cloud, the customer needs to approach security around public cloud hosted instances in a similar (if not the same) manner that they approach corporate data centre hosted applications. Virtualised software components are available for everything from firewalls, to identity management, to intrusion detection, to virus checking, and many other aspects of the security landscape. If you wouldn’t deploy an application into your corporate data centre without a perimeter firewall, why would you deploy it into a cloud environment without the same technology?

When choosing a public cloud provider, it is prudent to look into the provider’s track record when it comes to security incidents. Again the provider is responsible for security “of” the cloud, so knocking a provider for a customer’s lack of proper security controls would be unfair. Most if not all public cloud providers publish data on their ability to protect their data centres and the overall cloud provisioning environment. So, do your homework.

Another aspect of the provider’s environment that may be useful in making an appropriate choice is evaluating the tools that the provider deploys to help a customer secure the environment. Once again using AWS as the example, they provide a list of security focused tools including:

• WAF: AWS WAF is a web application firewall that helps protect your web applications from common web exploits. WAF controls which traffic to allow or block to web applications by defining customisable web security rules.
• Security groups: A security group acts as a virtual firewall that controls the traffic for one or more instances. When an instance is launched it is associated with one or more security groups. Rules are added to each security group that allow traffic to or from its associated instances.
• Network access control lists (ACLs) – A network access control list (ACL) is an optional layer of security for your virtual private cloud (VPC) that acts as a firewall for controlling traffic in and out of one or more subnets.
• Virtual private gateway (VPG) – By default, instances launched into a virtual private cloud (VPC) can’t communicate with an external network. You can enable access to an external network from a VPC by attaching a virtual private gateway to the VPC, creating a custom route table, and updating your security group rules. IPSEC tunneling and connection to a Hardware VPN are supported.
• Inspector: An automated security assessment service that helps improve the security and compliance of applications.
• Identity and access management (IAM): Role based identity and access management for AWS account and logins.

Microsoft Azure provides many similar features to assist in securing environments in the cloud. One interesting option available from Microsoft is Azure Stack. Azure Stack is a hybrid cloud platform that allows an organisation to host a functional Azure deployment on premise, in their own corporate data centre. Not only can the on-premise environment be setup to interact (as expected) with Azure online resources, it is also managed from the same management console as the online environments.

Finally, when speaking of hybrid cloud environments, the customer has to prepare the corporate data centre environment properly with sufficient rigour to ensure security on their end. The corporate side of the VPN needs to be secured with the appropriate tools (Firewalls, IDS) and monitored as any other corporate environment.

Many organisations are struggling to balance the benefits of public cloud (lower costs, elasticity, scalability and flexibility) with concerns about security. While public cloud still does not provide the comfort level of hosting applications in the corporate data centre, it is evolving as an attractive option even for those who need a higher level of security. Hybrid cloud is one possible way to balance these needs if an organisation views the public cloud as an extension of the corporate data centre while planning for and implementing security “in” the cloud as if it were another data centre that they have access to.

I love EMC World (though I can’t say the same about Las Vega$). I get an opportunity to talk to customers who are at the dirty and grimy frontline of trying to derive value from all of this Big Data hoopla. They teach me tons!
One theme that came up several times in our conversations was the following:
“I can’t get the Business to engage in an envisioning type of engagement. We have lost their trust. So we are forced to start our Big Data journey from the technology.”

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SYS-CON Events announced today that ContentMX, the marketing technology and services company with a singular mission to increase engagement and drive more conversations for enterprise, channel and SMB technology marketers, has been named “Sponsor & Exhibitor Lounge Sponsor” of SYS-CON’s 18th Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York.
“CloudExpo is a great opportunity to start a conversation with new prospects, but what happens after the show ends?” said Jeff Mesnik, ContentMX President. “We are here for the sponsors, resellers and cloud providers to make a plan to continue the conversation and not leave money on the show floor.”

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Cloud computing has unquestionably had a dynamic effect on business growth and productivity, enabling mobile collaboration and scalable packages that allow for rapid expansion. One of the principal benefits given in favour of this model of computing is its ability to drive down costs, particularly when it comes to removing or reducing the need for upfront investment, and providing a stable, predictable IT subscription.

One might assume, then, that the global take-up of cloud solutions would drive costs down further even as efficiencies grow. Yet often the opposite is true, and many businesses are encountering ‘hidden’ costs they hadn’t anticipated, causing some to question the overall value of cloud migration.

Unexpected costs

While cloud service providers naturally advertise the potential IT cost-savings to be made, caution is necessary when taking into account various factors.

The first is a question of human resources. In-house IT staff will need ongoing training in order to efficiently manage the cloud architecture, from the first stages of migration to integrating systems and maintaining them. This cost is enhanced the more complex hybrid systems become, as your staff need to collaborate extensively with the service provider’s administrators.

With regard to data retrieval, some cloud service providers offer tiered storage options, with differing levels of accessibility, which allow businesses to compartmentalise their data according to how often they need to retrieve it. This means that if you should unexpectedly need access to critical data promptly, you could end up paying more than you had initially budgeted for storage.

It can also be easy to either over- or under-provision, increasing costs, until you find the solution that works best for you, while pricing models are known to change regularly, in part due to service providers finding that increasing demand or complexity of their offering is raising their own costs.

While by no means comprehensive, this list should throw some light on what is a pressing concern for businesses investing in cloud migration. Part of the issue is that many businesses still view cloud computing solely as a cost, rather than as a benefit. Even though they may be paying more than they anticipated, the importance of reliable service, increased productivity and IT agility that they gain in return cannot be overstated.

Operational costs will still tend to be substantially lower than hosting software in-house, and there are numerous advantages, just one of which is an efficiency gain in the instant release of upgraded software and application of patches.

Cost reduction strategies

The good news is there are various strategies available to lower unexpected or ‘hidden’ costs of cloud computing.

Planning is key. The more time spent before migration into the cloud determining exactly what your company’s requirements and internal resources are, the more successful that migration is likely to be in its early stages. When looking at budget, it’s advisable to factor in the costs of making a few mistakes, such as storage needs, at the beginning. Never rush into a decision when selecting a provider as if you make the wrong choice, it can be time-consuming and costly to move your data elsewhere.

Staggering the migration process is also a good idea; consider moving easier workloads across first to build up knowledge, experience and confidence among your IT team, while equally important is investing in your in-house staff so that they are optimised. It’s worth noting here that you should expect some cost in relation to this to be permanent; while cloud computing in itself is not inherently expensive, the ‘human cost’ of ongoing training, support and maintenance can be.

It is also in the best interests of your service provider to ensure their clients are happy, so if you have issues with costs, you can take them up with your account manager and try to work out a more suitable plan going forwards.

Conclusion

There is a reason why most opinion towards cloud computing remains positive, as it does usually make financial sense for businesses of all sizes. It’s therefore vital to have a good understanding of what you’re paying for and why.