Cloud Computing

With the NSA surveillance revelations, popular cloud services going down and leaving customers without access, and articles in Wired talking about companies deciding the cloud is a “waste of money” are we starting to see a pull back from the cloud model, or are these just blips on the radar screen?

While speaking with a couple friends from Europe, they expressed concern about using US based cloud services providers, because of uncertainty over whether their data was being harvested by the US government in the name of “national security.” One of them was adamant that he would not use American based cloud services, and in fact felt that he w

Does a cloud-based firewall really replace a traditional firewall, or is it better to think of it as a complimentary level of security?

Is there a way to encrypt files stored on Google Drive?

What does the term "resilient" really mean when it comes to cloud computing?

Gmail has millions of users, and most of the people I work with have a personal gmail account, with few if any of them experiencing significant security issues. One thing that we have not explored as a company is using cloud based email, mainly out of security concerns.

I repeatedly hear a number of the same concerns about utilizing cloud services, some of which are valid, some maybe not so much. Compliance concerns is one that I run across often, and with some industries that have rigid statutory compliance standards, such as HIPAA for healthcare providers, it is indeed a serious issue.

There are a number of choices for free cloud storage - Dropbox, SkyDrive, SugarSync, etc. I was wondering if anyone had compared them to see which is the best choice for free cloud storage. Is there anything particularly good or bad about any of them, or are they all pretty much the same?

Have you implemented any special data security measures to protect high value data stored in the cloud? What is most effective?

I'm looking for a really good primer of how cloud storage works and the various options. Thanks!

One concern that I hear regularly about cloud computing is worry about data security. ISO (International Organization for Standardization) has cleared a standard for data transfer between public and private clouds called the Cloud Data Management Interface. Would you seek out providers with ISO certification?