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While the increasing popularity of Cloud computing spreads throughout the corporate space, the platform still encompasses some confusing elements for professionals and consumers alike. As a Cloud service provider, we feel it’s important for our readers to recognize that Cloud doesn’t have to be so confusing, and that it’s actually a tremendously helpful tool when presented in straightforward terms. Our new series, ‘Cloud Simplified’ seeks to remove the veil of confusion and show you how to leverage the cloud with quick and easy tips. Today, we’ll look at some easy ways to keep your Cloud Data safe:

1)      Loose Lips Sink Ships

We’ve all heard this warning at some point in our lives, designed to relate the consequences of sharing secrets. Perhaps one of the most important rules of Cloud data security is to be vigilant about keeping credentials (and other sensitive data) secret and only sharing these details with appropriate parties. There are many security breaches at that could happen at no fault of your own regardless of your best efforts, but this one falls squarely on you, so be mindful always!

2)      Good Credentials

The username / password combination for private, secure access has been around a long time because it’s simple and effective. Usually the only time accounts or assets are breached when protected by passwords is because they’re not secure enough or the attacker found out what the credentials were (see #1). So the best way to leverage your password protection is to choose complex, impossible-to-guess passwords and use different credentials for every service or site.

3)      One More Question

Security is so important on Cloud based services that it’s often best to include one additional personalized barrier to entry: The Security Question. You probably already use security questions on your banking website, Paypal or even Facebook. Make sure your Cloud systems are configured with a solid security question that’s easy for you, but impossible to guess for anyone else.  Especially avoid ‘multiple choice’ type questions such as birthdays and other occasions. Sure, 365 possible answers seems like a lot, but in the realm of hacking and cracking, that’s a very limited number.

4)      Multi-Factor Authentication

While passwords and security questions are good measures for protecting your Cloud services and data, sensitive material should be secured with additional defenses. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) puts into place one more ‘lock on the door’. Once you’ve entered your login information and answered your security question, an MFA system would then send you a code to your email or phone which you must enter at the prompt in order to gain access. This prevents attackers from getting in even if they’ve managed to crack your password and security question.

5)      Beware of Your Surroundings

One of the greatest things about the Cloud is that you can access it from virtually anywhere there’s an internet connection. But this can also present a vulnerability risk. Your home and office probably have secure networks and you’ve got extra protective measures and privacy protocols in place. But what about when you’re on the go? Using public computers and unsecured wi-fi to connect to your secure Cloud services can be dangerous. This is especially true for applications where you’re using the Cloud for file sharing or as an FTP Replacement. You also run the additional risk of others around you in public watching your actions. Just be constantly vigilant if you must access your Cloud assets while off site.

6)      “At Least There’s a Backup”

In the unfortunate event that, despite all your best efforts, there’s still a breach, you will want to still be able to speak those very words. Once your Cloud data and services are in place and secure, your next step is to back up everything on there. If some heinous hacker pokes through to your systems and steals everything, losses that weren’t backed up could prove incredibly costly. Even if you’re storing everything on a hard drive that sits unplugged collecting dust in a locked computer closet at the office, still…”At least there’s a backup.” 

For today’s technologically infused enterprise space, the project manager’s role is growing exponentially and the mounting list of IT projects needs a more enhanced tool set. For this reason, many business leaders are looking to cloud based SaaS (Software as a Service) resources to add to their arsenals.

Because of the hugely diverse array of SaaS project management tools out there, and because every business is unique and requires different needs in terms of SaaS resources, we won’t focus on the variety of tools available, but rather the elements you should consider when shopping for the right tool for your business. We’ve highlighted a few factors below that CEOs and CIOs should consider when the time comes to put these assets into play.

Security

While many project managers consider price to be the primary concern with Cloud platforms or software, security is perhaps the leading factor that should be considered. After all, you’ve worked hard to keep your network and sensitive data secure, how regrettable would it be to employ a new, helpful resource only to see it become the single point of vulnerability? This is an especially important question for file transfer software.

Because your data will likely be in the hands of a third party with a SaaS program (or at least in a third-party location), this area is especially sensitive. Ensure that the cloud provider has top-notch security and privacy measures in place. You’ll want to look at the tool from a security officer and compliance perspective. In addition to checking out the SaaS security measures, ensure the proper backup protocols are in place, and what contingency plans there are in the event of a breach on the provider side.

Cost

This factor is pretty straightforward, as all businesses usually know how to shop with a price – or more importantly, a budget – in mind. But the tricky part of shopping for SaaS products is the widely varying pricing structures. Because cloud-based tools don’t use the standard boxed software + license model, instead offering a service-based tool, you’ll be hard pressed to find any cut-and-dry pricing. The key concern in terms of cost when shopping for SaaS tools is to be laser focused on the compatibility of the software with your architecture and finding a precise match between your needs and the offerings and features of the program and the provider.

Features

The features of the SaaS product lie at the very core of the entire endeavor of implementing project management software. Ultimately, the features will be the ‘proof in the pudding’ for any PM who is looking forward to a more productive (and hopefully easier) road ahead. Again, your primary focus is compatibility and how well the PM software syncs up with your needs and the company’s existing architecture.

Be vigilant about uncovering at features that competitors might overlook, such as collaborative benefits and channels for marketing your services and products more effectively. Most importantly, for service-level features relying on the provider, ensure they have a consequence for failing to deliver features as promised.

Interface / Usability

While features, price and security are all significant concerns when shopping for SaaS project management tools, nothing else about the software will matter if the interface is broken, incompatible or simply hard to use. Demo versions and free trials exist for this very reason, and they benefit both parties. The SaaS provider gets to show off their product and bring the selling points home in a practical environment while gaining a stronger rapport with a potential client. Better yet, you get to see how well it works. Take every opportunity to try out a software you’re interested in before you buy.

If possible, make sure that as many staffers at the office get a chance to take the tool for a spin (or at least those will most likely be using it). Do some comparative testing along the way. While one SaaS platform may stand out in terms of usability, there’s no way to know if there’s a far better tool unless you shop around and try out several of them.

Studies have shown in recent months that the majority of consumers don’t really entirely understand Cloud computing. In fact, 9 out of 10 American consumers claim not to use Cloud computing, yet all of them had used the Cloud in some form or another in the past year without knowing it.

The caveat, then, is whether this knowledge gap transcends to the business leadership in the corporate space.

If we look at the present state of the corporate Cloud environment, it seems that the trends point to more of a misunderstanding than a lack of knowledge.

While the Cloud represents unprecedented accessibility, scalability and utility, the vast majority of business owners still opt against it for an increasingly popular reason: Cost.

This reluctance toward Cloud adoption due to financial concerns is therefore a puzzling matter, as it would most likely actually prove more cost effective.

Here at eTransmittal, we provide a Cloud-based service, or rather Software as a Service (SaaS) with very clear benefits to businesses as both an online collaboration tool and an FTP Replacement option for file sharing.

We ourselves use the Cloud for our operational purposes and we’ve enjoyed the cost-savings and efficiency benefits. But even our own testimonial aside, still many more Cloud-savvy companies are raving about the new tech trend. Granted, the Cloud may not be right for everyone, but we might be so bold as to append a big “Yet” to that statement.

The focus in this scenario should be squarely on the small business, as they stand to gain the most from leveraging Cloud computing. While still very much a generic term, the Cloud represents a fresh, flexible technology that truly levels the playing feel in today’s corporate space.

Small businesses who adopt Cloud computing technologies can overcome barriers and operate with a level of efficiency that empowers them to keep pace with their larger counterparts.

Whether or not business leaders in our ever-evolving technological economy are getting a good grasp on Cloud computing won’t be an issue for much longer. Like any other widespread technological advent, the Cloud will become more approachable as the early adopters revel in their successes. 

While the boundary between IT and the Cloud continues to blur, they are nevertheless complimentary to one another. Granted, the Cloud is becoming more influential in shaping the role of IT services in business, properly applied technology into a new Cloud environment can yield huge rewards for the enterprise that deploys these assets wisely. Cloud computing represents alternatives as well, acting as an email and FTP Replacement for document sharing, for example. 

The shifting role of IT is becoming more visible as the corporate space adapts to Cloud computing technologies. It has slowly pulled away from ‘ownership’ and now falls more into a ‘management’ status. In other words, technology systems aren’t static operational resources anymore – they play a much larger role in acquisitions and growth, especially within the cloud.

No longer does a system administrator simply own and govern the IT infrastructure. Instead, the role is a managerial one, with many technology assets being leveraged for diverse internal support and external services. CIOs are now able to bolster IT as a value-add component of the business rather than a cost center, and that role has come to be expected of them. Furthermore, IT pros have a more dynamic position, tasked with strategically advising the business and blazing trails into new territories.

Because of the tremendous leaps ahead in automation and accessibility with the Cloud, technology professionals are liberated from time-sapping tasks that were previously performed manually. Instead, these IT admins can now focus on managing and building an array of versatile cloud services. The role of the tech leadership within the business space is changing much like the role of IT itself.

The assumption that IT personnel are being replaced by automation is a fallacy. These people are more important than ever, having been freed up to reach their full potential and serve as a crucial conduit between the Cloud, the company and its users. That’s not to say that these administrators no longer perform administrative functions. They are simply shifting the admin scope to a Cloud-minded role, responsible for governing the services and assets from a different angle and with more flexibility.

Adapting to new Cloud technologies and new infrastructures can indeed require an IT overhaul for most companies. The good news is that the migration process is less of a headache when the CIO and the executive leadership have a good understanding of shifting roles of IT personnel and the technology itself. 

Cloud Computing Plays Key Role in NASA Mars Rover ‘Curiosity’ Mission

Despite a couple of headline-grabbing setbacks at its EC2 Compute Cloud facility earlier this summer, e-tailer giant Amazon is now garnering attention on an out-of-this-world scale…literally.

In what proponents are calling a huge win for Cloud computing globally, Amazon’s web services have been leveraged for NASA’s recent Mars Rover mission. The Cloud plays host to metadata and images captured for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), after the Mars Rover, Curiosity, collects them on the surface of the Red Planet.

JPL Data Services manager, Khawaja Shams, sees the advent as a milestone toward the federal government migrating to the cloud. With such huge amounts of data processing on such a broad scale, JPL could become the very pioneer to blaze that trail.

"At this point, JPL's data centers are filled to capacity, so we're looking for ways to cost effectively expand the computational horsepower that we have at our disposal," says Shams. "Cloud computing is giving us that opportunity."

As an example, Shams pointed to the mars.jpl.nasa.gov website operated using Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) Cloud. The site enables JPL to grab media such as pictures and video and distribute them to the public swiftly.

Because of the flexibility, accessibility and improved efficiency afforded by the Cloud, JPL was able to build a scalable web infrastructure in just a few weeks rather than a handful of months.

Cloud-based systems have become increasingly popular in the corporate space for many of the same reasons it has proved beneficial in the Mars Rover missions, yet the enterprise level and government entities remain elusive targets for Cloud providers. However, the success of the platform in NASA’s operations is reflecting well the advantages touted by vendors seeking high-level opportunities.

 The advantage of being able to send large files quickly and easily fits well with the project. "With unrelenting goals to get the data out to the public, NASA/JPL prepared to service hundreds of gigabits/second of traffic for hundreds of thousands of concurrent viewers," Amazon said.

The Mars Rover mission will continue automating the image analysis of photos taken on the planet’s surface, allowing for more of a time cushion for identification of any possible hazardous areas or points of interest as Curiosity makes its rounds. 

Corporate migration to Cloud platforms is in full swing and many IT professionals are touting the advent of a new era in collaboration and computing. Consumer-focused services, most commonly those pertaining to online file storage and file sharing, have preceded the influx of business-oriented Cloud infrastructures almost as though they were a test market of sorts.

But making the jump from the typical business Cloud platform to the Enterprise level could prove a much larger leap, and evidence pointing to that challenge continues to surface. The next move is learning lessons from Cloud failures and overcoming the obstacles. Let’s take a look at some of the recent occurrences from which we can glean insight from the missteps of the pioneers in the front of the pack.

Dropbox Security Breach

This week, the consumer-focused Cloud service Dropbox lit up headlines across the web after enduring a significant security breach. Dropbox and a large swath of its users were subsequently hit with a massive spam attack. News reports indicate that an internal employee’s account was hacked, most likely using a stolen password.

The culprit allegedly stole a project document containing user email addresses from the compromised employee’s account. Thereafter, the hacker went to work spamming the users with a deluge of gambling website ads. After further investigation, technicians discovered that many of the affected users were using their Dropbox credentials on other websites – a common, albeit risky, practice that security proponents staunchly discourage.

The setback for Dropbox is especially disheartening for the company, as the firm’s focus has been largely aimed at the Enterprise space. Having successfully staked a claim to the file sharing market in the consumer realm, Dropbox has held strong confidence in its pursuit of the sought-after Enterprise space. Naysayers are coming out of the woodwork in droves with just the opposite message in mind.

Amazon and Netflix Outage

Back in late June, we posted the news story about Amazon’s EC2 Compute Cloud failures and the Netflix outage. Amazon’s  EC2 system in Virginia went offline due to power outages caused by severe storms in the area. The outage knocked the Netflix service offline, frustrating the movie-streaming masses for a short time.

A couple of weeks prior to that event, the EC2 went down for about 7 hours – a near eternity in the perspective of ultra-speed ‘internet time’. Given the big scale brand that is Amazon, and the outspoken trumpeting of its Compute Cloud in previous months, the setback added insult to injury.

If only an isolated singular incident had occurred, the blowback wouldn’t put such a blemish on Enterprise Cloud concepts, but the fact that the outage was repeated sparks a concern.

Lessons Learned

Looking at these two big-brand blunders, many IT pros would declare the Cloud unfit for Enterprise use or in any manner that widens the service scope to massive scales. But every technology advancement has its pitfalls and failures. The take-away for anyone in the Cloud, whether vendor, consumer or business owner, is to learn from the mistakes and take a more proactive approach.

We recently published an article outlining the effectiveness of Managed Service Providers as a ‘fail-safe’ of sorts for common Cloud breakdowns. Preventative measures and hands-on maintenance under the supervision of technology professionals are key components to the contingency plan. Careful planning and documentation can further allay any emergent events.

Amazon’s lesson was squarely focused on redundancy. Most of us can agree that we aren’t likely to see another power outage cause such a crippling effect to Amazon’s EC2. That’s because they have taken preventative measures to insure against a similar crisis in the future. The luxury for those of us following the trail they blaze is that we enjoy the lesson without the consequence of the misstep.

The lesson Dropbox is learning is much different, and in many eyes more impactful because of the security concerns. Nevertheless, it’s a lesson just the same and avoiding similar occurrences in the future will come from reinforcing vulnerabilities found during the ‘learning process’. Given the significance of hot button issues like privacy, confidentiality and security these days, Cloud service providers will react with their own preventative measures gleaned from Dropbox’s disaster.

The enterprise space is still a viable target for the Cloud. The new technology provides more security and versatility, acting as an FTP replacement, an unprecedented collaborative tool and an infrastructure of accessibility to rival any before it. But at this point, for those of us still watching and learning, we could end up only having ourselves to blame for future failures if we don’t take advantage of the lessons unfolding at the front lines.  

The world’s paper consumption comes at the cost of cutting down about 4 billion trees each year. The United States uses about 28% of its lumber for paper, equating to about 71 million tons annually. With sobering statistics like these, plus a gathering storm of environmental woes, businesses and eco-activist organizations are ambitiously pursuing measures by which to reduce such impacts.

While many enterprises, especially those with higher-than-average paper consumption, have begun to implement ‘paperless policies’ as part of sustainability efforts, evidence is mounting that indicates simple digitization might not be enough.

One recent report has shown that, despite a positive rise in digital documents over paper, workplace printers are still spitting out reams of it unnecessarily. For example, the report shows that 77% of electronically transmitted PDF invoices end up in hard copy form.

The take-away for business owners is that, while electronic document management is an essential tool both for streamlining process flows and bolstering sustainability policies, it must be supplemented by awareness, training and a breakaway from the habits driving our need for printed paperwork.

Perhaps those most affected by the plague of paper perpetuation make up the vast majority of the building industry in the U.S. In addition to the forms and documentation common to almost every business, firms in the building space also manage tons of paperwork and files, from drawings and plans to important emails and proposals.

With the advent of Cloud computing and Software as a Service (SaaS) tools (such as our own eTransmittal application) available to Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) firms, paperless policies are becoming easier to implement.

Vendors and solutions developers are offering more solutions with greater diversity aimed at supporting these industries, as well as other high-consumption commercial environments and their sustainability efforts. Still, the paper-piling pandemic remains a process problem, only partially mitigated through digitizing our documentation.

Implementing tools that reduce an organization’s carbon footprint and/or eliminate waste and paper consumption are typically offering greater additional benefits, such as enabling a contractor to send larger files more quickly or keep track of projects with ease.  If your firm is investing in these types of tools, just remember that if you truly want to optimize the utility and versatility of these advanced assets, there’s still no fail-safe keeping those documents from ending up in the printer tray.

As businesses blaze new technological trails into the future of corporate computing, Cloud-based systems are positioned at the forefront. We are quickly approaching a threshold at which Cloud computing transitions from an experimental concept to a fully integrated business resource. While some of the bigger players on the field have encountered pitfalls in Cloud computing, such as Amazon’s latest outage, the game is growing more approachable.

One of the problems with evaluation and visibility regarding a new platform like the Cloud is that there’s not much empirical evidence yet. Only after a period of testing, trials, application and evaluation would we really get a good feel for results and success rates – whether the news is good or bad. While we’ve only previously heard a huge amount of hype from proponents and vendors championing the Cloud as the end-all technology, there has been only scarce reports of real, actionable historical performance data. Until recently, it was assumed the lack of data was because it simply wasn’t available yet. But it’s time for a second look.

We’re now entering a time where we should be seeing quite a few reports, results and success stories from the Cloud computing space; not just from vendors but from businesses expecting returns from a Cloud platform in which they’ve invested significant time and money. However, there is still only a paltry volume of testimonials and documented successes. At this point, the reason is most likely because companies deploying Cloud platforms are considering their developments to be trade secrets and private, sensitive assets. You might occasionally run across an article or white paper touting a company’s success with a Cloud strategy, but you can count on the fact that there are thousands more that haven’t even been published.

You also won’t be seeing too much Cloud hype anymore. This is because the inherent value and flexibility of the Cloud is becoming more apparent to business owners and CIOs. Vendors and service providers will have to rely less and less on ‘educational’ marketing and ROI-focused hype in order to convert new adopters. This is also the phase where free trials turn into annual contracts, service providers go to work managing all the clients they reaped in the hype phase, and the attention is on the engine in your new car rather than the car salesman wooing you into it.

As the Cloud is also filling in voids of demand and problems needing solving, more businesses are becoming reliant – almost captivated – within the new infrastructure. Because of the added security, the Cloud represents an email and FTP replacement option that simultaneously improves productivity and efficiency while remedying drawbacks of the older, less effective and less secure platforms. 

One of the natural barriers encountered in the shift toward Cloud computing has also been lifted recently; which is the ‘you go first’ mentality. Small businesses are reluctant to enter a space that even the behemoths of the land won’t venture into. Logically speaking, it makes sense to consider why such a universal enterprise space isn’t being pursued by the big players. But those fears have been quickly evaporating as technology titans like Google, HP, Amazon and Mircosoft enter the fray with committed strategies. That’s just one more obstacle removed from the path of a sweeping and swift movement.

Yet another indicator, which is clear and calculable regardless of reports and testimonials, is the money invested in Cloud computing. Cloud service providers and vendors are enjoying a steadily growing clientele and the profits are rising. Businesses are pouring more and more money into Cloud systems, which is often an uncontestable sign of the value of returns expected.  A company contributes funds to the areas that stand to yield the greatest returns. The Cloud is clearly becoming one of the top contenders in that arena, and rightly so. 

The buzz in the tech arena recently has included a sizable dose of Cloud computing topics. While we’ve progressed well past a conceptual perspective, the Cloud remains an interesting topic and a hotbed of speculation and progressive thinking.

The spotlight at the center of the discussion shifts almost daily as a fervor of competition and development herald a bustling digital revolution. Cloud service vendors stand to reap a bountiful harvest as more adopters emerge in the corporate space. But from a high level view, the current Cloud marketplace represents a threshold still unconquered despite years of growth.

I came across an article on GigaOm recently that was not unlike cracking open a virtual time capsule and peering into the Cloud as a fledgling concept. In the article, author Gary Orenstein analogized the Cloud marketplace as a ‘three-horse race’, where each “horse” is one of the key Cloud service offerings: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS).

While Orenstein’s descriptions and postulations about each service and the merits of their application for business make sense, the true takeaway was his prediction that the next progressive step would be “Undoubtedly, a combination of all three deployment models.” That was more than 3 years ago.

Yet few have managed to attain the perfect ‘Triple Crown’ of successfully and efficiently offering solutions that compile the treasured triad into one neat package. (Or perhaps we’re not looking hard enough.)

On the contrary, the news of the day involves big players marketing aggressively with a single-channel focus, a trend well exemplified by Network World’s recent piece about four household-name heavyweights jumping into the PaaS arena. Google has been snagging plenty of headlines of its own lately too.

For those keeping score, the evolution of the Cloud marketplace might have proven a little tough to keep up with. Despite predictions and anticipations from 2+ years ago that combining services would not only be the brass ring on the Cloud vendor carousel, but also the natural denouement for an evolving marketplace. So which is better? Time will tell.

But there is still little doubt that building the perfect ‘Triple Crown’ Cloud offering would benefit Cloud-bound businesses greatly, and earn a tidy fortune for the vendor. However, such a model may never exist – at least not as it’s been previously conceived.

The secret is that it’s not really a “Triple” Crown. For a vendor to execute the marketing, distribution and delivery of IaaS, PaaS and SaaS services concurrently, at least one additional critical component must bolster the bundle together: An internally-grounded core infrastructure with a broad scope of support. Think about it this way: Even if you had three hands in all, none would do you a bit of good if you had no backbone.

There is one caveat that seems to have been only scarcely discussed, and which could create a barrier to global tech titans from being able to offer up the ultimate Cloud combo: Location, Location, Location.

Thoughts of the Cloud computing space conjure up images of a largely atmospheric environment, free of the constraints of the physical world.  But the reality is less liberating, as proximity between vendor and client becomes increasingly important.

Successful Cloud marketplace competitors will be those who recognize and adapt to these subtle secrets. Our very own bWERX Inc., (the IT enterprise which helped develop eTransmittal into such a standout document management tool), represents this ambitious pursuit with a sound support strategy and local-focused IT management. No strategy is perfect, but we all know that every great formula has a few secret ingredients.