Attended an Azure briefing at Microsoft last week. One of the most interesting moment was the discussion (more like debate) around security in cloud. It's was a rare occasion when attendees were non hesitant to show their passion :) about the topic. Someone had a great perspective on the topic that I couldn't forget about, and decided to blog my take on it.
The gentleman truly seemed to believe that secuirty concerns related to cloud will dicipate faster if it was an offering brought forth by non-technology companies. People and organizations have hard time trusting companies like Microsoft, Google and Amazon because they do trust technology as a whole. Majority of people (technical as well as non-technical) see technology as something that's not very stable and goes through significant changes.
For example; my grafather may not care how banks and credit card companies are storing (and processing) his money. Reason being the trust and perception that these organizations have built over last many many years. If my grandfather was to know that his money is being stored as 0s and 1s on distant servers that keep crashing and are susceptible to viruses, he may not be as inclined to trust a bank with his life long savings. The regulations and oversight that governemnt has over these financial institutions is also a key factor in building this trust.
On the other hand, companies like Microsoft, IBM and Google have spent thier lifetime trying to sell licenses, and have created a perception of being always in an evolutionary mode. For cloud to be successful, these vendors will have to solve the credibility problem more than the technology problem.
Maybe the relative early success of Amazon over other cloud vendors is a pointer to prove my hypothesis as people have more trust in Amazon because of it's successful eCommerce business.
Food for thought!!
The gentleman truly seemed to believe that secuirty concerns related to cloud will dicipate faster if it was an offering brought forth by non-technology companies. People and organizations have hard time trusting companies like Microsoft, Google and Amazon because they do trust technology as a whole. Majority of people (technical as well as non-technical) see technology as something that's not very stable and goes through significant changes.
For example; my grafather may not care how banks and credit card companies are storing (and processing) his money. Reason being the trust and perception that these organizations have built over last many many years. If my grandfather was to know that his money is being stored as 0s and 1s on distant servers that keep crashing and are susceptible to viruses, he may not be as inclined to trust a bank with his life long savings. The regulations and oversight that governemnt has over these financial institutions is also a key factor in building this trust.
On the other hand, companies like Microsoft, IBM and Google have spent thier lifetime trying to sell licenses, and have created a perception of being always in an evolutionary mode. For cloud to be successful, these vendors will have to solve the credibility problem more than the technology problem.
Maybe the relative early success of Amazon over other cloud vendors is a pointer to prove my hypothesis as people have more trust in Amazon because of it's successful eCommerce business.
Food for thought!!
