The Rise of Polymorphic Cloud Computing

IT Organizations Gain Cloud Computing Confidence

There are still a lot of issues that IT organizations need to address as far as cloud computing is concerned, not the least of which are security and governance. But as thorny as those issues might be, it’s also clear that the compelling economics afforded by cloud computing are too hard to ignore.

A new survey of 201 IT professionals conducted by CloudPassage, a provider of cloud security hardware and software, bears that out. The survey finds that the vast majority of organizations are taking a polymorphic approach to cloud computing in the sense that they are making use of public, private and hybrid cloud computing platforms, as opposed to opting for one approach over another.

Private cloud computing arguably has an edge at the moment, but as CloudPassage Chief Evangelist Andrew Hay notes, that may reflect more where IT organizations are getting started in the cloud than the place they actually intend to end up.

Unfortunately, as is often the case with new and emerging technologies, security and governance appear to be an afterthought in the cloud, even though the survey shows that perimeter security in the cloud remains a top concern. Perhaps worse yet, the survey also makes it clear that no one is completely certain who in the organization is actually responsible for cloud security or how much risk there actually is. In fact, Hay contends that too many organizations are under the mistaken impression that cloud service providers such as Amazon are responsible for application security when for the most part Amazon will only vouch for its own infrastructure.

Regardless of all these issues, however, cloud computing is here to stay, which as a concept is something IT professionals are becoming more comfortable with each passing day. The only hope is that from a security perspective, they won’t one day regret it.