Is cloud computing worth the hassle?

There are risks involved in going to the cloud, but they can be overcome.
Cloud computing provides organisations with an alternative way of obtaining information technology services and offers many benefits including increased flexibility as well as cost reduction. But man many organisations are reluctant to adopt the cloud because of concerns over information security and a loss of control over the way IT services are delivered. These fears have been exacerbated by recent events reported in the press including outages by Amazon and the three-day loss of Blackberry services from RIM. So what approach can be taken to ensure that the benefits of the cloud outweigh the risks?
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Articles

Duqu follows Stuxnet - the next attack on the industry

Martin Kuppinger

	Last week Duqu, a new Trojan, became known to us readily coined by security experts and media as Stuxnet 2.0. Stuxnet and Duque, however, probably are only the tip of the iceberg and the precursors of new attack scenarios, which will keep us busy...

DigiNotar and RSA hackings demonstrate need for multi-level IT security

Martin Kuppinger

	The attacks on SSL certificate authorities such as DigiNotar or GlobalSign threaten significant aspects of SSL-based security on the Internet. They also demonstrate yet again that security concepts should be multi-layered and never have a...

Planning future-proof IT Security projects

Martin Kuppinger

	In IT, proper planning is all-important. If it is neglected, chaos ensues. Identity & Access Management (IAM) is a good case in point: As more and more enterprises recognize that it is not enough to simply concentrate on digital IDs and...

Ignorance is no excuse

Martin Kuppinger

	Looking back on the spectacular security breaches of the past few months it is almost impossible to avid the feeling that enterprises and organizations around the world have their heads stuck firmly in the sand, at least as far as Information...

How can IT keep a grip on mobile devices?

Martin Kuppinger

	Bring Your Own Device (or “BYOD” for short) is another IT hype word making the rounds nowadays, but it isn’t really all that new. Many employees have been bringing their smartphones or iPads to work for quite some time now, with...

Snapshots

Snapshot: ClusterSeven Enterprise Spreadsheet Manager - 70852

	ClusterSeven Enterprise Spreadsheet Manager (ESM) is a so-called “End User Computing Governance and Data Intelligence” solution. End User Computing is characterized by business computing activities performed by End Users, typically...

Snapshot: GTB Technologies – DLP solutions - 70357

	GTB is a US-based vendor which delivers a suite of products focusing on the DLD and DLP issues, e.g. Data Loss Detection and Data Loss Prevention. The core product GTB Inspector acts as a content-aware reverse firewall which scans all outbound...

Snapshot: Ilex Meibo and Meibo People Pack – IAM for the “big and not so big ones” - 70356

	Ilex is a French company founded back in 1989. The company, which started with security consulting services, has been offering IAM products for many years, focusing mainly on France and other French speaking countries, but now expanding to other...

Snapshot: Nervepoint Access Manager - 70354

	Nervepoint Access Manager - Self-Service v0.5 is a free tool that provides self-service and password reset functionality as well as account unlock for Active Directory. The product is still deemed “beta” by Nervepoint Technologies,...

Snapshot: Pawaa Enterprise Protection Suite - 70343

	Pawaa is specialist on Enterprise Information Protection based in Bangalore, India, offering a number of products and modules for use cases such as integration with Google Docs, SAP Business Objects or as an online storage platform.

Services

KuppingerCole Analyst Services

	In the networked economy of the 21st century, digital identities play a key role in establishing trust, achieving security, lowering costs and making business processes more efficient. Things like Identity and Access Management (IAM) or...

KuppingerCole Vendor Services

	The market for Identity and Access Management (IAM), governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) and cloud computing is expanding by leaps and bounds. In fact, no other segment of the IT market can boast such dynamic growth rates. At the...

KuppingerCole Briefings

	KuppingerCole welcomes the opportunity to hear from IT companies when they launch a new product or service or have other interesting progress to announce. Please fill in the request form , and we will contact you shortly.

Reports

Product Research Note: Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8 and Kaspersky Security Center 9 - 70401

	Kaspersky Endpoint Security and Kaspersky Security Center are two key components of Kaspersky Open Space Security – the integrated security suite from highly reputable security company Kaspersky Lab. Targeted primarily towards small and...

Advisory Note: The Open API Economy - 70352

	How the Open API Economy is increasing and changing the need for Identity Management. Baking an organization’s core competence into an Open API is an economic imperative. It’s clear that three main trends are driving...

Vendor Research Note: Oracle Cloud Security - 70160

	This document is an evaluation of Oracle’s platform for Cloud computing from an information security perspective. Oracle offers a comprehensive set of tools and technologies upon which to build Cloud services. These services which can be...

Product Research Note: Quest One Identity Manager 5 - 70133

	In 2010, Quest Software acquired the German software vendor Völcker Informatik AG, based in Berlin. Völcker had established itself in recent years as a provider of technically innovative solutions and a vendor to be reckoned with in the...

Product Research Note: Axiomatics Policy Management Suite - 70293

	This product report covers the following Axiomatics Policy Management Suite consisting of of the following products: Axiomatics Policy Server Axiomatics Policy Auditor Axiomatics Reverse Query The Axiomatics Policy Management suite falls...

Vendor Research Note: Fischer International - 70254

	Fischer International differentiates itself from other vendors in the IAM market space especially through its strong focus on providing “Cloud Services” through a SaaS solution for the core functions of Identity Management. Unlike...

Vendor Research Note: Courion - 70353

	Courion provides identity management solutions since 1996, is well established in North America,. Although the company has traditionally not had a strong presence in Europe, several large accounts in Germany, Switzerland and the UK are using...

Events

Webinar

Bridging the Cloud Sign-On Gap

09.02.2012, 2:00pm CET / 1:00pm GMT

	With a plethora of user names and passwords to remember, end users are already frustrated. Adding multiple cloud applications makes it more difficult for end users and increases help desk call...

Congress

European Identity & Cloud Conference 2012

17.04. - 20.04.2012 in Munich, Germany

	With its world class list of speakers, a unique mix of best practices presentations, panel discussions, thought leadership statements and analyst views, EIC has become an absolute must-attend event...

Podcasts


			Privacy by Design 27.01.12 2011 was, once again, a bad year for privacy as data breaches releasing usernames, passwords, credit card details and even medical records continued to make news right through the end of the year....


			Clearing up a Cloudy Standard: Simple Cloud Identity Management 15.12.11 "Simple Cloud Identity Management (SCIM) appears to be our best chance for any sort of public provisioning standard, something we desperately need and have needed for years", says Dave Kearns. Join...


			The Open API Economy - Opportunities and Risks 13.12.11 Three main (business) trends are driving technology in all areas: Social Computing, Mobile Computing and Cloud Computing. Looking behind the curtain, we see that these three trends with strong...


			Risk. The New Compliance 01.12.11 For many years complying with government standards and industry regulations has been seen as a check box in the lengthy list of IT security tasks. However, most recent changes in the ecosystem...


			Access Governance: Identity Management aus dem Business für das Business 22.11.11 Verantwortung kann nicht delegiert werden. Es sind die Mitarbeiter der Fachabteilungen, die gegenüber Aufsichtsorganen, Prüfern und Justiz in der Verantwortung stehen und letztlich auch in die...


			Why Access Governance Moves the Risk and Reward Balance in your Favour 15.11.11 In this webinar, KuppingerCole´s Principal Analyst Martin Kuppinger will describe, how to reduce business risks through transferring responsibility for defining, maintaining and auditing...


			Solving the Million Record Challenge with XACML 11.11.11 This webinar with Martin Kuppinger and Gerry Gebel is part of our XACML how-to series and will highlight, how you can implement XACML policies in "big data" scenarios.


			The Clock is Ticking: Rethink PCI 2.0 Compliance 03.11.11 The time when you will ultimatively have to demonstrate PCI DSS 2.0 compliance is getting closer now. We therefore would like to invite you to join us in this webinar to have a look at how you can...