CeBIT 2010: Firms told to focus on cloud security

Cloud computing is high on the agenda at this year's CeBIT

HANNOVER: Security must remain the top priority as businesses rush to embrace cloud computing to help reduce expenditure and improve sales, according to Werner Vogels, chief technology officer at Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Speaking at the CeBIT trade show today, Vogels said AWS is seeing increasing demand for its services, as it is able to offer the scalability and flexibility that companies need to work in today's IT and business environments.

"We are seeing firms taking advantage of services for traditional reasons such as web hosting or software distribution, but also in new areas like disaster recovery and large-scale analytics," he said.

Vogels added that many IT chiefs see cloud computing as an integral requirement in any purchase of new services, underlining its growing importance to businesses now and for the future.

"CIOs are making bold moves in the cloud space and demanding that new technologies are cloud-ready, not only in areas where it is obvious that technology needs to work in the cloud, such as web hosting or marketing campaigns, but also in areas like media distribution or collaboration tools," he said.

However, he stressed that firms must make sure security remains key when considering cloud products, both to protect their investments and to adhere to data protection laws.

"It is important to not only secure information but to make sure that firms have the right tools to manage it too. Additionally, data needs to be secured in compliance with the various jurisdictional boundaries that exist, both within the EU and around the globe," he said.

Vogels added that reliability is another key concern for many small and large enterprises and that it is important firms consider this when moving important infrastructure to the cloud.

"A minute of downtime is a disaster in any business. Firms need to make sure they have a rock-solid platform that can survive any failures that might occur, " he said.

Vogels also denied the idea that AWS is only offering services to use otherwise redundant web capacity the company owns, and said that the cloud model was one that he believed would continue to grow.

"We believe there is a huge benefit in cloud computing, to help firms reduce capital expenditure and improve scalability, and as such it is an area we will be involved in for many years to come," he said.