Data security is most crucial to any organization. While prevention is of utmost importance, cloud service providers also need to have a focused recovery plan in case of data loss. Continuous monitoring is required to investigate and analyze the cause of security breaches and prevent their recurrence



AS cloud computing gains pop- ularity, analysts predict it may soon render the IT industry redundant as applications are purchased, licensed and run over the network instead of a user's desktop.

According to Gartner, the worldwide cloud services revenue is all set to cross $56.3 billion in 2009, a 21.3% increase from its 2008 revenue. The cloud market is expected to reach $150.1 billion in 2013.

Despite the bright silver lining in the ?cloud?, Indian IT companies face many challenges when it comes to adopting cloud computing. According to Dip tarup Chakraborty, principal research analyst, Gartner, "The adoption of cloud computing in India will depend on the rate of adoption of IT infrastructure within small enterprise sand rate of improvement in internet infrastructure." Ease of adoption is key to the success of this model. "Vendors have to come up with easy-to-adopt applications that can run cloud computing," he said.

Cloud computing is a computing paradigm in which tasks are assigned to a combination of connections, software and services accessed over a network. This network of servers and connections is collectively known as "the cloud." Computing at the scale of the cloud allows users to access upper computer-level power. Users can access resources as they need them.

"Indian companies are widely using traditional web-based services for their businesses today. So, many are comfortable with the basic productivity apps being offered as a service. At the IT-as-a-service end, this is still in its earliest stages. Many companies are using hosted facilities for their data centers and IT-as-a-service will be the next step," said Souma Das, India vice-president of cloud provider, Citrix.

Sridhar Sarathy, vice-president India operations, Juniper Networks, highlighted some basic challenges a company would face in adopting cloud computing. "Arriving at the necessary services and applications to be delivered over the cloud, understanding the requirements of each application, the compatibility between the user network and that of the cloud provider, understanding the software licensing aspects of using services delivered by an external cloud provider and having the financial justification for migrating to the cloud are some of them," he said.

Globally, security is a big threat surrounding IT in the cloud. "Access and authentication, infrastructure security management, and network security are some of the key security issues associated with cloud computing," cloud provider Altair's business manager (South Asia), Satish R said.

With the popularity of cloud computing, the definition of the "network" has greatly expanded and cyber criminals have many more loopholes in the network armour to target as employees traverse in and out of the network proper, according to Derek Manky, Project manager, cyber security and threat research, Fortinet. "With cloud computing, we are shifting towards a thin-client world which implies more responsibility and capability on the server side. In terms of capabilities, these servers must support and monitor much more traffic flow, increase their power and capacity, and host complex software to support their function," he explained.

Data security is most crucial to any organization. While prevention is of utmost importance, cloud service providers also need to have a focused recovery plan in the event of data loss. Continuous monitoring is required to investigate and analyze the cause of security breaches and prevent the irrecurrence, said Sarathy of Juniper Networks.

Another issue associated with cloud computing is the lack of clarity on what happens to data during acquisitions. "Company data traditionally resides in the LAN; incase this is moved to the cloud, what happens to the information when the company is acquired?" Sarathy questioned.

Also, with so many companies jumping on the cloud computing band wagon, how is a potential buyer supposed to sort through the noise? "Vendors election being really important, one needs to check vendor-provided development tools, hosting infrastructure, storage and data center capacity etc, to make a decision. A one-size-fits-all approach would never work. Strategic partnerships with service-provider firms/SIs usually enable the cloud vendors to scale and offer better service levels," said Ashwin Krishna, chief operating officer, Torry Harris Business Solutions.

"An example would be a partnership between Sales Force (cloud provider) and Torry Harris (SI partner)." Potential users of cloud computing services must always ensure clear service level agreements are in place, said Sarathy. "Before adopting the cloud, enterprises should define parameters like time taken for basic/recurring transactions, software licensing and costs, customer support and compatibility issues and how the cloud provider intends to resolve them," he added.