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What is the cloud?
Let's start with the basics
The internet started to become relevant around the mid-1970s. At this point, we didn’t have the great interfaces, programs, and infinite cat videos that come with the internet today. Instead, all that they had back then was a new communications protocol called the Transfer Control Protocol/Internetwork Protocol, infamously known in the technology community today as the TCP/IP suite.
When the internet was first introduced, many companies saw promise in the way that we can communicate valuable and time-sensitive information quickly. The most prominent group to take advantage of this technology are the stock market traders. With the incorporation of the internet, traders were able to trade stocks without needing to be there in person to fill the paperwork to make exchanges. This then led to the revolution of many different industries from healthcare to transportation.
Currently, when businesses talk about the cloud, they refer to those services and technologies that utilize the internet to provide servers, networks, tools, data storage, applications, etc. Typically these cloud services also come with maintenance requirements to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of these services, infamously known as the “CIA triad” within the cyber security community. However, there are many different types of cloud technologies with many different uses.
Cloud Terminology
Cloud Computing : The process of running algorithms and processes on servers within data centers.
Cloud Provider : The organization that provides consumers the architecture to run and use cloud services. Typically they are in direct contact with or are a part of data centers.
Cloud Consumer : These are the customers and consumers that use cloud services from music streaming to social media.
Data Center : A large collection of servers and hardware that runs cloud services usually grouped in a single location.
Cloud Platform : This is another name for the infrastructure needed to run cloud services.
Cloud Servers : These are the servers located in the data centers that host the cloud services that consumers use.
Types of cloud services
Public Cloud
The public cloud is a type of cloud provisioning that allows for many different consumers to use the same piece of cloud infrastructure to save resources and decrease costs.
The public cloud is best suited for small corporations and organizations that provide services over the internet that are not sensitive in nature or processor specification intensive. Oftentimes when a corporation doesn’t have the critical mass to invest in their cloud infrastructure then they will opt for a public cloud environment since they can lease only the resources they need thanks to cloud resource virtualization.
However the public cloud isn’t a one solution fits all. If one consumer’s data gets compromised, then most likely all the other consumers who are sharing that same cloud platform also had their data compromised. Similarly, if one consumer’s request is causing latency and congestion issues with the shared server, then all the consumers on that shared server will also experience a varying degree of latency and congestion issues.
Private Cloud
The private cloud allows for an organization to have better control, privacy, and security over the services that they use and provide over the internet. In contrast to the public cloud, in the private cloud your resources that you use are in a segregated environment from any public cloud resources. There are two main ways to provision private cloud infrastructure. The first is to look for a cloud provider that has the capabilities and infrastructure within their data center to provision a private cloud environment. The second is to build your own data center, albeit at a smaller scale then a normal cloud provider. In the second option you could probably only have a couple of dedicated servers running at your physical location to host your services.
Oftentimes implementing a private cloud environment is quite expensive since it requires the organization in question to have a private cloud platform either in the form of an individual data center or a segregated private server within a data center. However, if you are running sensitive services such as verifications, permissions, or transactions, then it would be important to consider investing in a private cloud environment.
Private cloud infrastructure is also beneficial if you have service-specific specifications for the type of processors or components you need on your cloud service devices. Some examples of services that could use specific cloud infrastructure components include cloud hosting optimization, transaction processing, hashing, authentication, etc.
Hybrid Cloud
The hybrid cloud infrastructure is perfect for corporations that have uses for both public and private cloud platforms. In this case, corporations can keep their sensitive data in their local data center while being able to enjoy the benefits of the public cloud without needing to invest in a large data center platform. Despite not having a public cloud infrastructure, corporations who implement the hybrid cloud model also enjoy the ability to quickly add or remove resources the business needs since the business has both public and private cloud options.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
The hybrid cloud infrastructure is perfect for corporations that have uses for both public and private cloud platforms. In this case, corporations can keep their sensitive data in their local data center while being able to enjoy the benefits of the public cloud without needing to invest in a large data center platform. Despite not having a public cloud infrastructure, corporations who implement the hybrid cloud model also enjoy the ability to quickly add or remove resources the business needs since the business has both public and private cloud options.
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
PaaS applications give consumers a preconfigured platform that allows them to build their own unique experience while having the barebones built and optimized for them. Usually, there would be a preconfigured operating system and preinstalled software tools which help the consumer in setting up the environment that they need. One benefit of PaaS over IaaS is that usually these PaaS data servers are specially made and optimized to handle the operations that these service providers are offering to consumers, running their functionality in a more efficient manner.
A common use case for PaaS is web hosting. A lot of web hosting providers, such as GoDaddy or Hostgator, give you a pre-configured OS with a suite of different software that can help you get your first website setup. Usually, within the suite of software there are content management systems, domain configures, and network analytics software all of which can be individually downloaded and removed while providing the consumers with a seamless website building experience.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Cloud service providers who have a valuable service that they can offer to consumers through the software that they developed can opt for the SaaS business model. This is where the consumers will pay a subscription fee to use a specific service on the internet that is provisioned by the cloud provider. Often there is no setup needed to use this service as a consumer and often times it could be used from a browser like google chrome or safari. In this case, the service provider will manage all of the backend data centers, software, and operating systems, while the user just has to access it and run it remotely. This solution drastically reduces the overhead costs of companies looking for cloud services since all of the maintenance, security, and operations are outsourced to cloud providers. Some examples of SaaS services include Docusign, Gmail, and Facebook.
Is the cloud secure?
With more than 82% of consumers storing data in some type of cloud environment, there are concerns regarding the security of their data. When comparing the risk that comes with businesses hosting their data in-house vs in cloud infrastructure, experts have found that information in the cloud is actually safer than those hosting data within business premises. Some factors that play a role in how it is more secure involve redundancy, 24/7 monitoring, and encryption. To learn more click here.
Cloud Technology Limitations
Cloud technology isn’t perfect, there are many limitations to its applications and uses due to specific industry requirements that vary from business to business. However, there are a couple of big underlying issues to cloud technology that the majority of cloud consumers
Privacy
Being the biggest concern of most people and businesses in this day and age, the privacy of the data that you are putting in the cloud is concerning especially if the data is sensitive or confidential. In fact, 18% of the data in cloud storage are of some type of sensitive or confidential nature. The reason why privacy is an issue is due to the fact that the cloud service providers and the host company would be able to access this data with or without permission. In fact, if they wanted to they could access this information at any point in time, obviously with its appropriate repercussions. This means that it is possible for your information to get changed, viewed, or deleted without your consent.
Security
Being the biggest concern of most people and businesses in this day and age, the privacy of the data that you are putting in the cloud is concerning especially if the data is sensitive or confidential. In fact, 18% of the data in cloud storage are of some type of sensitive or confidential nature. The reason why privacy is an issue is due to the fact that the cloud service providers and the host company would be able to access this data with or without permission. In fact, if they wanted to they could access this information at any point in time, obviously with its appropriate repercussions. This means that it is possible for your information to get changed, viewed, or deleted without your consent.
Compliance
Being the biggest concern of most people and businesses in this day and age, the privacy of the data that you are putting in the cloud is concerning especially if the data is sensitive or confidential. In fact, 18% of the data in cloud storage are of some type of sensitive or confidential nature. The reason why privacy is an issue is due to the fact that the cloud service providers and the host company would be able to access this data with or without permission. In fact, if they wanted to they could access this information at any point in time, obviously with its appropriate repercussions. This means that it is possible for your information to get changed, viewed, or deleted without your consent.
Data Recovery & Contingencies
Being the biggest concern of most people and businesses in this day and age, the privacy of the data that you are putting in the cloud is concerning especially if the data is sensitive or confidential. In fact, 18% of the data in cloud storage are of some type of sensitive or confidential nature. The reason why privacy is an issue is due to the fact that the cloud service providers and the host company would be able to access this data with or without permission. In fact, if they wanted to they could access this information at any point in time, obviously with its appropriate repercussions. This means that it is possible for your information to get changed, viewed, or deleted without your consent.
Abuse
The abuse of the services that these cloud providers offer is more a concern for the cloud providers themselves. For example, threat actors would be able to run whatever type of malicious activity on those virtualized IaaS services that they choose assuming that there are no safeguards in place to stop them. The government is well known for wanting to dip its hands into these 3rd party cloud providers to try and share their consumer’s private data under the guise of cloud protection of cyber threats. However, this is a valid concern for many providers and usually entails some type of monitoring even on private server environments.
Future of cloud technology
With the onset of covid-19, we have seen the accelerated growth of cloud technology as more and more businesses start to migrate over to remote and hybrid work models. As time goes on we will see more of an emphasis on resolving the issues with cloud technology today alongside improving and optimizing the functionality of cloud services. Some insights that our professionals at All Cyber have come up with fall under three categories.
Increased Security Features
Since there is growing infrastructure on the cloud, there is naturally going to have to be an increased amount of security on the cloud as well. This means that as we see more businesses migrate over to the cloud we are going to see a decrease in the number of organizations needing in-house networking security. This also means that we are going to see more cloud security solutions for cloud encryption and authentication as time goes on.
Rapidly Evolving Cloud Services
With the cloud services industry rapidly growing, more and more cloud providers are joining the market. This means that many companies are going to need to upgrade their legacy products to make sure they can compete with newer cloud technologies.
Big Name Behaviors
Currently, the big-name players for cloud services are AWS, Azure, and Google. This hierarchy doesn’t seem likely to change anytime soon; however, with the introduction of new cloud technologies such as cloud processing optimization and machine learning implementation, we will see these top players needing to adapt and implement these new technologies, or else they will be left behind by their competitors.
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