How to secure the cloud?

We've noted that the financial services industry has awakened to the massive potential of cloud computing. By one estimate, IT cloud services will form 25 percent of all incremental global IT spending growth by 2012. The financial services industry certainly understands the advantages and has been rolling out more cloud initiatives. The main stumbling block, however, has been security. 

Network Computing notes, "Many cloud services contracts stipulate that data protection is the customer's responsibility--even though the cloud provider manages the data and the client often has no control over it." That raises the stakes for a lot of Wall Street firms. At a minimum, they need to audit all contracts and to be certain they'll be able to comply with privacy and security rules "as the cloud provider makes changes, such as moving data from one facility to another." Google and Amazon, which are pitching the industry, acknowledge the tool for better services in this area. But I think most of the action will remain clustered in internal clouds.

For more:
- here's the article

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