Definition of Cloud Computing Essay

What is your definition of besmirch figuring and how does it impact your business? Cloud cipher has been around for a while. It has been lurking in the ICT industriousness in sm every(prenominal)er forms and companies constitute gen sequencelly been victimisation the service internally with turn out realizing it. Only a few years ago, the jerky realization that demoralise reckoning can save an organization huge operational costs came to the fore. Organizations were getting bigger and the cost of doing business was comely expensive. Organizations that were expanding globally, i.e. beyond their countrys borders were discovering that the infrastructure costs per country wide-ranging and in some instances were n oneness-existent as the country did not have the purchasing power to procure the latest infrastructure. This meant that organizations that had SOE (standard operating environments) and were mandated by policy to align to specific standards began to find it more diffic ult to maintain their standards.This in felon meant that compromises would need to be made to credential policies and the method in which study was delivered to international clients had to be changed to alter this to happen. So, it was only natural that when cloud computing service providers began an aggressive push for their services, the world breathed a respire of relief. Here at last was a service that could be delivered around allwhere in the world and even more beneficial was the position that the service could be delivered down to handheld devices much(prenominal) as smartphones and the iPad. In plus to this, cloud computing enabled an organization to maintain its policies seamlessly across sevenfold sites which may be located in different countries. The entire plan could be used to practical(prenominal)ly centralize the info and the policies associated with it. So, exactly what is cloud computing? To the layman, the simplest definition is the storage of sch ooling in a virtual cloud with the Internet world used as the backbone to introduction and work on info.The CloudThe Cloud data FlowData FlowFor a user who is always on the move, cloud computing makes it easier to gateway and work on data regardless of the location and it alike allows the user to be in touch with his office because cloud computing is not restricted merely to cultivation sharing but in like manner allows for the bridging of the user and his colleagues by way of video conferencing, virtual boardrooms and other features that enable a user to remain connected. From a more technical perspective, the data is stored in data farms that can be made up of SANS, virtualization, credentials layers and connectivity mediums that allows for the quick access to data. The benefits of cloud computing atomic number 18 no suspect bulky but what does this mean for the financial industry? What does this mean for an industry that is built up on a strong set of information pr otective cover policies, all with the one objective of protecting guest information and transaction records?For someone such as me, the financial industry is near akin to the Russian iron curtain. Customer data is jealously reticent and information relating to the financial organisations is kept securely under lock and key. either single user is tasked to get word that any information coming out of the system is used exactly and only for the purpose it is deemed and destroyed one time it has been used. In addition to this, the ICT industry in the finance industry has a massive task on its hands. It is responsible for ensuring that intrusion attempts are detected and arrested on the spot and any data traversing out of the network is secured to the tip of destination. Naturally, the ramifications of any breach can be authorizationly fatal. Breaches of customer data can usually result in * Customer sound action, i.e. being sued* Non-compliance of central bank regulations can lead to fines* going of reputation* Loss of revenueThese factors can usually be devastating for any bank. subsequently all, customers expect their personal information to be kept secure when dealing with a bank apt(p) that no one likes their financial information splattered across the public boards for the world to see. If an example is sought here, one need only look at the Swiss banks. When people foreboding intimately their money, they rush it to Switzerland, even when domestic laws forbid it. Switzerland never seems to have any trouble which would adversely affect the value of its currency or the safety of the money entrusted to its bankers (Vicker 3, 4). This was the general norm until recently in 2009 when the US demanded that the Swiss Bank UBS turn over details of US clients who were pretend of tax evasion, fight between U.S. authorities and the Swiss banking giant, UBS, the veil is about to be pierced. UBS agreed on Wednesday to turn over identifying information on 4 ,450 accounts which the IRS believes hold undeclared assets belonging to Americans. Those accounts were believed to hold about $18 zillionAccounting Web (08/20/2009 0826). Ultimately, this defined a new era for Swiss banking because another country had successfully infiltrated the closely guarded secrets of the Swiss banks and managed to demand data be handed over through legal channels. So what does this mean for organizations in the financial sector where gage is predominate? Naturally, no financial institution wants to lose control of its data or being in a position where it cannot control the flow of data accurately. It is therefore critical that the decision to move to a cloud establish environment be studied carefully while gauging the risks involved and the potential loss of customer information if the system were ever to fail. Therefore, it is my belief that organizations in this sector are highly unlikely to move over simply to the cloud based system.Federal and centra l regulations would play a of the essence(p) role in the decision as well as the security aspects. For any financial organizations contemplating this move, it would certainly not be done by way of hiring a vendor providing the service and instead the organization would underframe its own private cloud where it would enforce all the necessary regulations and policies that would ensure the security of the data. It is also prudent to remember that the core applications of financial organizations are generally built around legacy based languages such as COBOL and these cannot be easily migrated to a web based system given that there are transactional processing issues such as response times, and so forth that need to be factored. For financial institutions, the change would be far excessively massive and require an almost complete overhaul of the existing investments in the infrastructure and a change in the central policies. In addition to this, there is always the hugeer risk of d ata losses as Google experienced recently which left a few thousand customers without access to their mailboxes and ultimately losing their data.In a cloud based environment, the risks of such occurrences especially where customer data is concerned are far too great to be reckoned with even if the ratio is small, that risk cannot be taken. Organizations in the financial sector are dictated on industry expected practices such as data retention periods, backup methodology, archiving, backup security and a whole host of other protocols that need to be followed when dealing with customer data. In an environment such a cloud based one, these methodologies cannot all be applied given that the environment is changed from a more rigid and manageable structure to a more fluid structure.In conclusion, the theory of cloud computing is indeed a fascinating one and offers massive savings for any organization that ventures into it however for industries where customer information security is th e key to survival, the prospect of going to a cloud based system unless it were a privately built and controlled one would not induce any encouragement in the financial sector. Nonetheless, it is hoped that in the future, central regulations will be changed to encourage the migration to cloud and with the appropriate security policies and perhaps an improved security structure, this vision may one day be fully embraced by the financial industries around the world. * Vicker, Ray. Those Swiss Money Men. New York Scribner, 1973. * Accounting Web. Swiss Bank UBS agrees to reveal U.S. secret accountholders, http//bit.ly/iO4bX6, August 20, 2009, 0826