Protecting Data in the Cloud
Image credit: photograph of Edvard Munch painting [Public Domain], via Wikimedia Commons
How Spectre and Meltdown are harbingers for more vulnerabilities
And here you thought public clouds were safe.
By this time you have heard about the recent vulnerability of Spectre and Meltdown, two newly-discovered flaws in the majority of server CPUs produced in last 20 years. It’s yet another confirmation that the risk of contagion is high in the shared environment of the public cloud. Your organization’s crown jewels (sensitive data, applications) are not safe in the public cloud.
This is not crying about the upcoming “boogeyman,” but validating the fact that public clouds are less secure than their private counterparts.
Here’s why.
The public cloud paradigm promises cheap compute by sharing infrastructure with other users. And just like using public transport or public showers, the risk of exposure to unwanted things is always present.
Vulnerabilities are not just CPU-related; they can happen with software. Unfortunately, you’re relinquishing control, authority and security to the provider when you’re using a public cloud. And that increases your chances of security issues.
What’s alarming about Spectre and Meltdown is that serious vulnerabilities like these have gone undetected for such a long time (20 years!). Today, attackers are becoming more stealthy with malware that can go unnoticed for months…even years. Just imagine how much more is going on that you do not know.
Private clouds, on the other hand — by their very nature — provide dedicated environments, which means total security and protection from contagion from other users. With private clouds, you can dial in the level of security that you require and is satisfactory to you. In a private cloud environment, you don’t have the risk of sharing a cloud environment where other users, software and malware can affect your data and applications.
At Kodiak Data, we offer a full range of private cloud choices with the exact SLA for the privacy you need. We offer our users the ability to do quarantine and deployment at the level of separation and isolation they desire. Kodiak Data has pioneered the edge cloud infrastructure for Big Data via Kodiak Data-hosted clouds and private clouds (in-building or co-located).
Now ask yourself this important question: “Do you still want to trust ALL your valuable private data and applications entirely to public cloud?” Because now, with private clouds from Kodiak Data that are faster and cheaper than public clouds, you have a better, safer choice for your crown jewels.
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