Cloud-based internet services are springing up left and right on the internet, with small start-ups contending with established technology companies. The list of leading cloud service providers contains many familiar names, such as Amazon and Google. More familiar names are joining the fray, giving companies looking to establish themselves in the cloud, or expand their existing activities, a multitude of options. It also means that businesses must carefully consider the benefits and risks of using cloud-based services, including cybersecurity and data integrity. The explosive growth of cloud computing has also meant a lack of industry standards, meaning a company using a particular cloud service provider may have difficulty transferring their data elsewhere. Each business using the cloud bears ultimate responsibility for their own data, security, and confidentiality, and they must plan accordingly.
Amazon Web Services, operated by online retailer Amazon, is the biggest provider of cloud-based services, according to the technology blog GigaOM. It may currently operate as many as 450,000 servers worldwide. Its leading competitors include long-familiar names like Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard. Less-familiar names like Rackspace and VMware also provide extensive cloud computing services, and the social networking company Facebook is reportedly developing its own data services.
The discussion of Amazon’s vast cloud offerings leads GigaOM to ask whether the internet needs more cloud service providers. For any business looking to expand in the cloud, options are good when looking for the best services and best prices. Businesses need to consider issues of cybersecurity and privacy in conducting risk management planning. They should add to that the question of portability: as tech companies race to build cloud networks to compete with Amazon and other giants of the industry, each individual provider will seek to keep its customers close. This is causing something called “cloud lock-in,” where a lack of common computing standards means that a user could be trapped in their current cloud service, prevented from moving by both technological and cost constraints. Companies must evaluate exit strategies for any prospective cloud service.
Microsoft, as one example of a relatively new entrant, launched its cloud-based operating system system, Windows Azure, at the beginning of 2010. The service mainly offered platform-as-a-service (PaaS), essentially providing users with a virtual version of Windows. The company announced on June 7, 2012 that it will be expanding Azure to include infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and “hybrid cloud” features, allowing users to run “virtual machines” with both Windows and Linux operating systems. This brings Microsoft’s services more up-to-date with those of other companies, including some fast-moving newcomers to the cloud business like Oracle.
Just before Microsoft’s announcement of its expanded Azure services, Oracle announced a comprehensive set of new cloud-based applications. Oracle’s cloud service was reportedly seven years in the making and includes over one hundred apps. Google, meanwhile, hopes to launch more in-depth cloud-based services by the end of the year. Its Google Apps services and various forms of online storage, including Gmail and Google Docs, already constitute a sizeable set of cloud-based services.
Prism Risk Management provides businesses and organizations with risk and loss prevention consulting and offers services in loss control planning. To learn how our team can help your organization, contact us today online or at (512) 901-0070.
More Blog Posts:
Proposed “Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights” Could Protect Businesses Using Cloud Computing, but Also Makes Them Accountable to Employees, Prism Risk Management Blog, May 14, 2012
Public Cloud Computing Has New Guidelines to Help Protect Users’ Privacy and Security, Prism Risk Management Blog, April 25, 2012
Federal Government Develops Definitions and Standards for Cloud Computing, Prism Risk Management Blog, April 18, 2012
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