Blowing away cloud concerns
A consortium of service providers, vendors, government organisations and consultants has begun work on a set of measurements called the Common Assurance Metric (CAM) designed to make it easier for businesses to compare the security features offered by cloud-computing providers.
The consortium said that overall, CAM will “allow cloud providers the opportunity to demonstrate their information security maturity in an open and constructive manner.”
Security is the number-one concern for IT managers when they think about cloud application deployments, followed by performance, availability, and the ability to integrate cloud services with in-house IT.
These new measurements will allow businesses to compare security features via a standardised information format, helping build trust among end users. But although it’s always worth asking a cloud service provider what security they offer, it’s also worth remembering, just because it’s not in the server cabinet in the IT room doesn’t mean it’s not vulnerable.