Cloud computing: Boon or bane?

Last week, I wrote about why your cloud service will eventually fail, referring specifically to Gmail's widely publicized downtime of some 100 minutes. It generated a fair amount of debate on the cloud computing front, with a number of responses from readers who added their views via the comments section, or who wrote directly to me via email.

What caught my attention was reader Dean Loomis's simple, yet completely sobering observation that "you would not feel so comfortable with that kind of downtime" in the shoes of a patient with a critical problem and where all patient records were stored in the cloud.

Which boils down to the ultimate question: Is cloud computing a boon, or a bane?

Why the Cloud is good

First of all, let us examine some of the advantages of cloud computing. Frankly, with the current hype involving the Clouds, it is impossible to be completely ignorant of some of the benefits of cloud computing.

To name just some of them: how about reduced capital outlay, flexibility in capacity planning, near infinite scalability, and--for the most part--better quality of service? While we are at it, why not throw in a lowered carbon footprint as a benefit too, thanks to the more efficient use of computation resources.

On the other hand, it would be foolish to ignore some of the very real problems with this paradigm. So let us take a look at the problems with cloud computing.

The problem with Cloud Computing

As I highlighted last week, there are inherent problems with the cloud computing model. To balance my earlier pro-cloud stance, do allow me to add a couple of items to the list of disadvantages today.

First of all, without the network, there is no cloud. And with the increasing convergence between mobile data networks and computer networks, the cloud is increasingly accessed from mobile devices and smartphones. Problem is, the mobile data network might not be as ready as we would like it to be.

Just this week, I heard from an industry veteran who highlighted the inherent anonymity afforded by cloud computing. Talk about the ultimate in security by obscurity--I was left feeling impressed with the forward thinking. Well, that was until a few hours ago, where I read about a new research paper released by a group of university researchers.

You can read more about it from my report "New research explores cross-VM attacks in Cloud Computing" further down, but one part of the report essentially explored ways to determine and target a server used to run a cloud-hosted service; and then get "close" to it in order to conduct an attack. So while no successful attacks were conducted and exploit released, it would appear that security based on obscurity in the clouds is no longer a given.

Final analysis

There is certainly much more to be said about cloud computing. For today however, I have highlighted some of the positive and negative aspects of cloud computing in the hopes of presenting an objective and balanced evaluation of it.

What should our stance be though, moving forward?

I had an informal chat with Mr. James Loo, CIO of the YCH Group at a conference hosted by Frost & Sullivan in Singapore earlier this week. What I really loved with his response was the pragmatic observation that--and I am paraphrasing here--the company that tries to play it safe in everything will never be a leader in innovation.

So here goes: If you are able to, and where it makes sense, go ahead and leverage the cloud. Where there are problems, do take the necessary steps to avoid them. Ultimately, whatever your opinion is on the matter, cloud computing is here to stay, for better or for worse. - Paul Mah