Secure in the Cloud

When it comes to Cloud services organisations vary widely in their adoption maturity - whether you are assessing, implementing or are already using a service in some shape or form the questions over security have to be answered.

The IT Forum Secure in the Cloud workshop enabled senior IT professionals with experience of using Cloud services and those still evaluating services to discuss how IT organisations can best provide secure Cloud services to the enterprise. The workshop included a presentation from security vendor McAfee, which provided an overview of the key threats and challenges involved in evaluating, deploying and managing Cloud services.

'Cloud Computing' is a term that has multiple definitions and encompasses a range of services, from simple managed services and applications to infrastructure and platform-as-a-service models.

There is increasing recognition that the cost benefits that Cloud services can bring, through scalability, agility and reduced capital investment, must be balanced with the investment in both time and money that is required to adequately mitigate the risks associated with Cloud services.

Key security concerns around Cloud computing include reliability and scalability, meeting legislative and mandatory compliance goals, and the lack of appropriate models to adequately predict and analyse the risks of specific Cloud deployments.

The workshop was attended by 19 senior IT professionals from 13 different organisations, including representatives from the chemical, pharmaceutical, transportation, professional services, retail, financial services, publishing and defence industries, along with representatives from public sector organisations.

Topics discussed included:

• What variety of services might 'Cloud' cover?
• What are the key security risks associated with the Cloud?
• Ensuring that data security is at an acceptable level
• Security and risk models, and assessment
• Location of hosted data and associated legalities