Hollis Examines Trust in the Cloud

Chuck Hollis’ blog post, Harris: What It Takes To Build A Trusted Cloud, includes a line that I think is important and worth repeating: “[C]loud has the foundation to be more secure and more trusted than anything most enterprise IT organizations could do themselves.”

That’s a controversial statement in the face of the prevailing opinion that cloud computing is too inherently insecure to trust.

Let’s call BS on the fear mongers who echo that sentiment. First, cloud adoption trends show that clearer heads are prevailing. Last year Gartner said that 35% of companies had already adopted cloud in some form, and another 30% planned on doing so this year. That means that by the end of this year, assuming Gartner’s projections hold true, nearly half (35% + 30% of the remaining 65% = 48%) of companies will have moved some portion of their operations to the cloud.

Why would they do that if the cloud is such a risky place to be? Chuck’s blog examines that question in sufficient detail, but in simpler terms, cloud naysayers rely on faulty logic when uttering their lamentations. Their argument assumes that enterprises are secure environments, when the evidence clearly shows otherwise. Astute CIOs recognize that cloud adoption allows them to simplify their own IT. As my motto, O Sancta Simplicitas! suggests, I’m a big fan of simplicity. Simpler means fewer moving parts and fewer opportunities for a breakdown in security.

It also means you should choose your partners with care since you can outsource operations, but you can’t outsource liability.