The Cloud has Security Issues - So, whats new?

There is so much talk about the cloud and cloud based SaaS - with many in the "Ok" camp, and as many in the "Not ok" camp. The biggest reason that the Not Ok camp has is of security, data confidentiality, and so on.

However, when the security issues are detailed to me, I have to shrug the feeling of deja vu. Now, where have I heard those before? The issues that the same server could be having our competitors data, so just what happen if our data is leaked to theirs, and vice versa. The issue that since the servers are not within our premises, how do we know that nameless faceless masked people are not walking in and snooping with the data? And then, there are some on disaster recovery. Oh, what if their server breaks down? What will we do?

These are all legitimate concerns, and they need to be addressed. These concerns were always there, and the risks were always there earlier too - just as we earlier did, we just need to understand those risks, and manage them. To be able to do that, we need to first, manage the fear that stalks our minds, and paralyzes it, and then we can really deal with it. Fear of the unknown is a luxury that most business people can ill afford.

In the early days of networking, when we started to use the internet to transfer company sensitive data, rather than our own completely-owned VSAT networks, the kinds who networked only internal machines and had absolutely no path out, we had to contend with our hysterical business people worrying that the same wires carried their competitors data. We had to sit them down, and patiently explain how we "could" secure the pipe, even when the pipe now was shared. It was important for us to explain how our competitor, though sharing the pipe, could not look into ours, and list the risk probabilities out. Soon, people understood, and the days of relying on internet to transmit business data began.

Then, when we moved our servers from our own premises to the third party data centers, another fear, or losing location control, had to be taken care of. We had to explain that even though the data center could have our competitors servers, and ours, how the ingress/egress policy, agreements, user provisioning policies, and whole slew of other measures could deal with this risk. We also had to explain that competition stealing data or user identity theft was not something that was only technology related, and had to involve people and understand the inherent risks in working with human beings. Soon, once again, people understood, and today, most companies do not have their ERP or BI data servers inhouse, but in secure, managed third party service provider setups.

Even in the case of cloud computing, the scare of sharing the same computer, or even the same application across competition is large - and legitimately so. Once again, rather than giving in the nameless fear, we need to understand the risks one by one, of using a shared infrastructure and an application, and break it down into risks, that we can then examine properly. And then walk the business users through the risks, and allow ourselves and them to come to a informed decision.

Point is, the risks of data security were always there. When we had our neat little machines on our tables, with no network, we had them then. When we networked them, we had them then. When we moved them to the shared data centers, we had them then, and now too, when the cloud computing and SaaS wave is upon us, we have them now. Just like the earlier times, we need to deal with the risks, and not just throw the enormous benefits that the new paradigm can offer, simply because we are too paralyzed with fear to deal with it.

So, CIOs, just dig a little deeper. The more the things change, the more they remain the same. And you would deal with this too, just the way you dealt with all the previous fears - and embrace this brave new world.

Amen to that!

Advertising - whats IT got to do with it?

IT managers of yore would never have anything to do with advertising or marketing. That was for those pony tailed folks, the ones who had a pencil on their ears, and sometimes even wore a ring in their ears. The kind of people IT managers could not identify with, as if they were beings from another planet. IT managers stuck to running ERP projects and BI projects and laying down complex networks and spoke in lingo that no one understood, leave alone those marketing nerds.

How things change. Technology makes people hobnob with very different kinds of people, and I can't think of any different sets of people than IT managers and marketing/brand managers.

Because, marketing is now turning to technology like never before to get their message across. So much so, that their way of life/work has soon get completely changed due to technology - and these days one finds those creative pony tail bearers beating down the technology tracks in droves. Making Youtube videos, creating alternative lives, creating face-book identities and managing them.

The change hit me as a I read this article on how on-line communities are forcing Unilever, the CPG gaint, to look at technology enabled communities and word-of-mouth, and dealing with its impact on their advertising strategy. It hasn't come to their budgets yet, or so they say, it isn't easy to depose earlier held beliefs - but the change is real enough.

So, whats IT got to do with advertising? Plenty, in a couple of years. It may become the way brands and built and protected, if they are not already. And if you are an IT manager, you could only ignore web 2.0, on-line communities and the effects it can have on your company at your peril. No, make that to the peril of your CMO. He/she may or may not have a job if he does not make nice with you, and you ditto.

Lets start at the very beginning

I did that start a few months back, and then stopped. I got completely embroiled in the hurly burly of the business, and this business called life.

In the meanwhile, during the intervening months, the boom has gone bust, the economy is reeling the way it had'nt for years and years, the business outlook is much worse than one had ever imagined - and some. Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, AIG - the underwriters to the worlds insurance has to be underwritten by the US government, the stock markets lost more money in weeks than they had made in several years, the stock markets in India more than halved, pink slips rather than job hops are getting discussed over coffee, the US got a new prez - Phew - its been a very momentous few months! No wonder I could not catch my breath and blog!!

Ok, so lets begin again. At the beginning.

What has business got to do with IT?

It is amazing that even now, when the entire business landscape is awash with technology, and technology has made an impact on business far greater than what the earlier technology pioneers has dreamt in their wildest dreams - even now, this questions gets asked, every so often, on every wave, for every new front that technology opens.

And it is right that it should. There is so much change around us that just figuring what it means and what it could mean, and what it could'nt mean is an extremely difficult task, and even the best can sometimes miss it by a mile.

So, here goes my take on the question. IT is the plumbing of the business. And the new brave thing quivering on the horizon for the business - and it is both simultenously. It is boring - and it is spectacularly exciting.

As soon as we IT to run efficiently within the company, it turns into the plumbing of the business, and then, it needs to be treated the way plumbing is. How important can plumbing be, you ask? Let your toilet plumbing break down for a day!!

And if new, all new, completely new technology, this quivering, yet-to-be-stabilised technology is not offered to the new hordes of customers, for all you know, you may be out of business - or you have a whole new business created by some cheeky enterprenuer, right under your feet, without you even realizing it was happening. Yes, it used to happen to businesses earlier also, but increasingly it is happening quite a lot due to information technology reasons, and you can ignore it only at your peril.

Business must take technology very seriously, and mostly it does. It is only with the new technology it really dithers about - to do, or not to do. To run or not to run....

In the current conditions, businesses must look at ways of leveraging technology like never before. Use technology to collaborate like never before. Reach for younger consumers who have grown up on the staple diet of technology like never before, build technology based community like never before..... the list goes on.

Why this blog

It got created because of two things.

First, one of my co-speakers at a Web 2.0 conference had his talk titled as "Whats law got to do with it" - and that got the song worm embedded in my head. Its been ages since I heard that Tina Turner song, I mean, the one thats got the love word, but it is a powerful song, and the song worm kind of settled in my brain.

Second, I met this CIO friend of mine, someone whom I worked with in the my previous avatar as a IT manager, and while I was gushing about web 2.0, I noticed a glazed look come into his eyes - and he wondered aloud - "But whats that got to do with me?" . Plenty, I thought, as I tried to answer him.

And I thought, he is so right. There are so many times when technology comes along, bursting at the horizon, and there are many of us who are caught wondering. Will this effect me? Should I know about it? Should I care? Where do I begin?

Its for times like this that I would like to blog about. Of course, I can only write about stuff I know, or I think I know, and I will learn as a I blog, but hopefully, some of you would do too with me - and some of you would teach me.

-Sangeeta