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Is working in the Cloud secure? Future prediction study and report

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Is working in the Cloud secure? Future prediction study and report
January 4th, 2011 | Author: Lorie Vela

Last

year Pew

Research

Center published a very interesting study about the future of the Internet and how most of us will be working in the Cloud. In their research they found out that most experts and stakeholders who participated in the survey expect that by 2020 a huge majority of people “will access software applications online and share and access information through the use of remote server networks, rather than depending primarily on tools and information housed on their individual, personal computers”. No need to say that these data count on the late raise of the Social Networks and how much time we spend sharing content with others, a new Era of collaboration that allows us to be always update and in contact with the information and people we chose (or not?), no matter if we are using Webmail, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Youtube, Myspace, Delicious, etc, all our data are there in the cloud and most of us don’t even realize what it means to have personal information out of our own control and management.

While 71% of participating experts agree that most people will be using web-based tools such as Google Docs and smartphones apps, a 21% on the contrary, stated that most people “will still do their work with software running on a general purpose PC”.

So, what if cloud computing dominates the way we work and interact everyday? What if all our personal, private and confidential data and strategies are in the cloud? Will there be such great security systems and firewalls to protect our content and information?

Working in the cloud has pretty interesting advantage: we can access our data from everywhere and every device, that is truly a strong asset to go for it considering all the different gadgets and tools we use to work and all the pros of mobility. Further more, when we are even accessing that info or data through web-based tools, we won’t even need to install any software on all our devices, we’ll only need an update, optimize browser and we’ll be ready and settle.

But still, security is an issue, in fact, the study came to a very interesting conclusion: “large business are far less likely to put most of their work “in the cloud” anytime soon because of control and security issues“.

We all know how much trouble we get from Facebook security problems and how they use our personal information. But if you are not in the Cloud, as a corporate or brand, you do not exist… If no one can tweet

or “like” you, do you really do anything interesting? We are giving our personal”cloud” the best of our brains, memories, thoughts, feelings, everyday life, work, love and just about everything. Somehow the Cloud becomes a huge brainwhere all about us, our life is always showing, it’s our play.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m totally into collaboration and mobility, but one thing that really worries me is security and privacy: every time we share info even with colleagues, we are giving them some kind of power or advantage, just like everything else humans do, collaboration sounds perfect, but on the other hand, how about those people who use that info and collaboration for “personal” purposes or profit?

Crowdsourcing, collective intelligence, collaboration, Web 2.0 and the Cloud… All that sounds like a very close future change in the way we are interacting and working. But I wonder, how about privacy and security?

Summary The article discusses the results of the study Pew Research Center on the future of the Internet and of how people will be working in the cloud. It predicts how the workforce will be in the coming years. But at the same time, it also presents the issue of security and privacy which may be a barrier to working in the cloud.

Description In the article, Lorie Vela shows her great appreciation for collaboration or cloud computing or crowdsourcing (as it is commonly called). She believes in its power and the benefits it offers. But at the same time, she also recognizes both security and privacy as two issues that will likely affect an organization/company/business' commitment towards crowdsourcing or collaboration.

Tags: applications, cloud computing, Collaboration, collective intelligence, confidentiality, Crowdsourcing, privacy, security, software, tools

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Is working in the Cloud secure? Future prediction study and report

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