Cloud Security: A Comprehensive Guide to Secure Cloud Computing

Chapter 8. Useful Next Steps and Approaches

Removing the faults in a stage-coach may produce a perfect stage-coach, but it is unlikely to produce the first motor car.

—–Edward de Bono

With the large volume of information on cloud computing and security presented in the previous chapters, it is valuable to use that information to make important decisions and find answers to common questions concerning the application of cloud computing in an organization.

This chapter focuses on exploring the questions to ask cloud providers when considering their services, the categories of applications that should be placed on the cloud, the type of cloud to be used, areas to obtain additional cloud information and assistance, and how to get started in cloud computing.

Getting Answers

Three common questions come up when an organization is considering using a cloud:

• What services should I move to the cloud?

• What questions should I ask the cloud provider?

• When should I use a public, private, or hybrid cloud?

These questions are addressed in the following sections.

What Services Should Be Moved to the Cloud?

One of the most important considerations in deciding which services should be placed on a cloud is cost. Cloud expenses include charges for storage, processing time, and bandwidth consumption. Bandwidth costs can be extremely high; therefore, a cloud application that involves a large amount of data being exchanged with a cloud over extended periods of time would not be a good cloud candidate. Also, applications ...