End user risk plagues the rise of cloud computing

Dive Brief:

Cloud computing offers major benefits to schools, and while there are risks that have presented barriers to adoption for some, experts say there are ways to mitigate risk and still see the advantages.

EdTech: Focus on K-12 reports data breaches are a top concern, but districts can encrypt their data to offer another layer of protection. And though risks presented by end users are serious, awareness campaigns can help. Finally, targeted outreach to teachers can ensure they understand why they shouldn’t sign up for cloud-based applications on their own.

IT professionals can avoid a good deal of risk by doing their due diligence on the front end, finding out which vendors will keep data safe, private and secure and follow FERPA guidelines before entering into any contracts.

Global Colocation Market is Expected to Reach $51.8 Billion by 2020 - Allied Market Research

According to a new report published by Allied Market Research titled, "World Colocation - Market Opportunities and Forecasts, 2014 - 2020", the global colocation market is expected to reach $51.8 billion by 2020, registering a CAGR of 12.4% during 2015 - 2020. Global colocation market for energy sector would exhibit highest CAGR of 14.3% during the forecast period.

North America has emerged as the most promising region, exhibiting a huge demand for colocation by adoption in the sectors of banking, telecom and IT sector in order to manage their dedicated data servers. In 2014, the market for colocation in North America was valued at $11,779.9 million and would continue to consolidate its market position during the period 2015-2020. Key factors such as shrinking IT budgets and the high cost associated with the development of dedicated data centers would largely drive the market by 2020.

Security Is Better With Cloud Providers

The financial services industry is, after much wringing of hands about data security, moving computing operations to the cloud to save money, improve operations, increase agility, gain access to large-scale resources and improve security.

Given the sensitive nature of client data, financial firms have been slow to adopt the public cloud, but resisting cloud deployment based on security fears is becoming more of a thing of the past. IT people tended to overestimate the security measures deployed within their own walls as well as their ability to contain customer-data breaches. A recent report on the state of the security industry report showed that one-quarter of all data breaches take organizations weeks, or even months, to contain. By contrast, large cloud providers have security teams, systems and tools constantly monitoring operations.

It’s the business of cloud providers to supply computing power that is secure both on the perimeter and inside the data center. So while an individual machine may be running month-end banking statements in the afternoon and seismic modeling for an oil and gas exploration late at night, the data is securely ensconced behind internal firewalls that protect each virtual machine. What’s more, cloud provider infrastructures that require certification are subject to regular audits from consulting firms that specialize in IT security.

The very complexity of cloud operations also provides a layer of security. Even if cyber criminals know the specific cloud provider an institution uses, they’d still have to find the right data center and gain access. Even then, there’s still substantial internal security left to breach. Businesses that store information on their own servers offer a comparatively easier target than those that use the cloud.

Read More: http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomgroenfeldt/2015/12/01/security-is-better-with-cloud-providers/