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Disadvantages of the cloud, what are you worried about?

Submitted by CloudHosting on Sun, 14/06/2009 - 14:15.

I thought It'd be interesting to get everyone's thoughts on what the most prevalent problems of cloud computing and cloud hosting are...

My two cents...I'm worried about vendor lock-in (as mentioned by GNU founder Richard-Stallman) - when you choose a cloud computing provider, such as gMail (for example), will I then be able to transfer my mail box to another provider at free-will? If not, will I be at the mercy of a price-hike for instance? I have seen the Open Cloud Manifesto, and I am indeed a supporter, but how "open" can you feasibly make the cloud?

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Vendor lock-in is certainly

Submitted by samclodu on Sun, 14/06/2009 - 14:26.

Vendor lock-in is certainly a concern. For me, at the moment, I'm finding it particularly difficult to translate the large variety of billing models for these clouds into a bottom line figure so I can actually figure out if hosting in the cloud is going to cost me an arm and a leg.

So, one disadvantage - complicated billing - difficult to attain cost transparency!

This will probably become easier as propositions develop and the masses flock to the cloud (inevitable imo).

Data security concerns

simonblackler's picture
Submitted by simonblackler on Wed, 17/06/2009 - 11:59.

I think the largest problem with adoption of the cloud will be individuals, businesses, corporations, banks and other financial institutions not trusting where and how their data is stored.

The very reason it's called "The Cloud" is because you're not meant to care about HOW what's going on happens, it's out of sight (and control). You create or upload your data but within the cloud it's up to the cloud provider to implement how it's dealt with. They can implement anything that satisfies the performance requirements, which is a concern for security concious people.

I fear that large organisations will simply prefer to keep their systems internal, and run "private clouds" or just virtualise their operations. They have the finances, are heavily regulated and who can blame them? What would you pick given the choice of a) a deliberately vague data platform and unknown security procedures on what is effectively a shared platform in an emerging and untested field versus
b) being able to tell stakeholders and the FSA that they have all data in house on tangible equipment with their own security procedures.

Security

CloudHosting's picture
Submitted by CloudHosting on Wed, 17/06/2009 - 16:20.

Yes I agree with Simon on this one - data security and protection is a well-known problem in the industry especially as it is perfectly possible to have your data on the same physical server as someone else even though they may be on separate virtual servers. How many CEO's of financial service companies would be happy with that? Not many.

And that's why I think you'll see a rise in private clouds. IBM are attacking this area with the launch of their new cloud services this week; they are even selling the hardware for a cloud as a complete package for $200k.

Cloud consultation services and private managed clouds are set to grow rapidly as the larger financial companies attempt to realise huge cost savings that the cloud offers whilst keeping the security of their data in tact. The private cloud is a seemingly good trade-off.

In the world of an open cloud, it would be easy to transfer from a private cloud to a public (outsourced) cloud...Although realistically same vendor transfers will be notably easier than a change of vendor, despite the ideal of an open inter-operable cloud.