Web security in the cloud

Cloud security

The internet has become a key business tool for all industries, as it's grown in importance, so has the risks of hackers. As the internet becomes more of a key, hackers get more sophisticated - it becomes more and more important to protect yourself and your business with security. As much as organisations are under pressure to protect themselves against organisations, there's another factor for them to consider - cost.

Many organisations are trying to reduce their costs as well as protect themselves. Security can be costly for businesses at a time when they're trying to tighten their belts. Not only that, but it adds to added pressure on already stretched IT departments. In particular, small and and medium organisations only tend to have skeleton staff who are in charge of all aspects of IT.

As businesses worry about cost, it is leading to growing interest in new delivery models where access to applications and services is provided on a pay-as-you-use basis, a report by silicon.com, entitled The drivers for web security in the cloud reports.

Using this basis allows organisations, with not only the the benefits of lower upfront investments in terms of software licenses, the hardware needed to run the tools and the lowered cost of implementing the system, but also offers them enhanced protection capabilities against web-bourne threats, as protection is applied directly where the threats are in the cloud, so that attacks can be stopped before they reach the organisation's network.

Leaking of information

As an online presence becomes even more important, every organisation has to worry about protecting their network against abuse. To take control, organisations need to ensure that users don't download unauthorised software which could be compromised by malware, be able to block users from accessing inappropriate or harmful contents, and finally, be able to monitor how network resources are being used.

As the internet becomes more mobile, and the use of Web 2.0 applications such as blogs and social networking sites grows, it can lead to further concerns about personal and sensitive data being leaked.

Protection from the cloud

The answers to the security and cost problems for a company, is the service applications and services provided in the cloud. Cloud computing is defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Cloud Security Alliance as a model which enables network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources, such as networks, servers, storage, applications and services, which can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction, the report states.

Use of services in the cloud is especially important for organisations with a large number of employees, who work remotely, whether that's at home or in branch offices, so they can be sure that each individual user has full protection.

Cloud-based services are becoming increasingly important for a wide range of services - from the management of customer relationships to outsourced management of infrastructure operations. In particular, web security is well suited to this delivery model due to the ease of use, lowered costs of using the service and the access to higher levels of threat protection.

Jodie Humphries

Jodie Humphries graduated from Bath Spa University with a BA Hons in Creative Writing in 2008. She has worked for GDS Publishing for the digital group since July 2009. She has previous experience with writing for the web, running her own website since April 2007.

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