Savvis CEO Phil Koen accepts the 2009 Spirit of St. Louis Technology Award from Jim Castellano, chairman, RubinBrown LLP in St. Louis. The award presented each year by the St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth Association (RCGA) recognizes a company's commitment to both technology and the St. Louis region. The RCGA noted Savvis Project Spirit, Savvis next generation cloud infrastructure service delivery platform, as a key consideration in Savvis' selection.
Savvis CEO Phil Koen addresses the St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth Association (RCGA) and members of the media at a breakfast meeting in St. Louis. He presented an update on the company, Savvis Project Spirit, and plans for the company's next generation enterprise cloud solutions platform.
Savvis CTO Bryan Doerr today demonstrated Savvis' new enterprise cloud platform dubbed Project Spirit. Project Spirit powers the industry's first enterprise-class Virtual Private Data Center with multi-tied QoS capabilities. In this picture, Doerr is showing the new user interface to several hundred press, analysts and bloggers in attendance at VMworld in San Francisco.
Savvis CTO Bryan Doerr discusses Savvis' next generation cloud solution dubbed Project Spirit and its expected impact on the industry and the enterprise.
Dennis Brouwer, VP, Global Networks, Savvis, on how customers can take advantage of the flexibility that the cloud offers without tearing down and rebuilding their entire data center.
Dennis Brouwer, VP, Global Network Solutions, Savvis, on the impact of QoS on latency in the cloud.
Dennis Brouwer, VP, Global Network Solutions, Savvis, on how networking professionals have to change the way they think in order to provide cloud computing networks.
Savvis continues to forge a leadership position in cloud-based infrastructure solutions. Recently we caught up with Dennis Brouwer, V.P., Global Network Solutions, at Savvis, who examined a variety of issues and opportunities for enterprises considering cloud solutions. Over the next four weeks we'll post some highlights from the discussion.
Some of these include:
by Chris Richter, Vice President of Security Services
In just the last few months there have been scores of articles written about the security risks of cloud computing in enterprise data centers. With a broad brush, commentaries have painted cloud computing environments as insecure infrastructures where tenants can more easily view other tenants' data, and even hack into their virtual servers, launching attacks on neighboring virtual machines without the victim knowing. One writer compared cloud computing environments to a multi-tenant office building where thieves can break through walls and steal content from the other side. Such views are fomenting a general perception that cloud computing is synonymous with high security risk. While some of these concerns are well founded, many are not. I believe the generally negative opinion about cloud computing security is based on the belief that all cloud computing environments are created equal. They are not.
There seems to be as many definitions of cloud computing as there are blogs about this subject. Ultimately, what cloud computing comes down to is the architecture and processes supporting the provider's infrastructure. All cloud infrastructures are located in one or more physical data centers which host various forms of server virtualization, networking and storage systems deployed in a myriad of ways. Some cloud providers tie in services from third-parties to build a "community" of services that are delivered in the cloud. But the differences between providers lie in the practices governing how these systems are deployed, configured, and managed, all of which can also vary greatly. The same basic principals of data security that apply to dedicated infrastructures must also apply to cloud computing environments. If the IT environment is not properly architected and managed, security risks will abound.
While I would still argue that most cloud infrastructures are far more secure than most of the dedicated environments in existence, I am not suggesting that enterprises select a provider without proper due diligence. Providers should demonstrate the "guts" of their environment. At the very least they should be willing to share details regarding:
Without adequate transparency about how service providers help their customers manage IT security risks, the perception that all cloud computing environments are plagued with inherent security issues will persist. We, as an industry, can change that to ensure that enterprises no longer view security as an obstacle to embracing cloud computing.
