Recent security problems with Google's cloud offerings have sparked a flood of questions about whether or not cloud services are ready for prime time. Are they sophisticated enough to handle the world's mission-critical applications reliably and securely? In my view, the answer is a resounding yes. Choosing one or more cloud service could, in fact, reduce expense and security risks for the average company.
That view may come as a surprise in light of the dozens of stories that emerge each week summarizing various cloud failures. Those failures aren't the norm, though; it's just that the media makes more money when it reports bad news instead of good. How many articles have you read about cloud vendors with 99.999 percent uptime and availability? How many news alerts have you seen this year discussing the cloud products and services that experienced no significant security issues? Not many, I suspect.