Skip Links

Network World

  • Social Web 
  • Email 
  • Close

Five questions to ask before trusting your data to Amazon or other storage cloud provider

By Jon Brodkin , Network World , 05/19/2008
Newsletter Signup
  • Share/Email
  • Tweet This
  • Comment
  • Print

What security measures do you offer?

Customers typically are expected to encrypt their own files. Don't assume the storage provider will do it for you.

Will I have access to logging and auditing data?

Such access lets you find out whether anyone other than you is modifying or changing your data, says Joel Snyder, senior partner with Opus One and a Network World product tester. Amazon.com and Nirvanix offer this service at no extra charge.


Cloud vs. utility: What’s the difference? Listen now.

 


Can I choose where my data will be stored?

In some cases, customers may need to know the exact location of their data for purposes of regulatory compliance. Nirvanix offers the option of locking data into specific physical locations, but Amazon does not.

What kind of downtime can I expect?

Customers of Amazon's Simple Storage Service suffered a service outage for several hours one morning last February. Still, cloud services may be more reliable than a customer's own data center. In addition, Amazon and Nirvanix give service credits to customers if monthly uptime falls below 99.9%.

How would you recover from a disaster?

Like it or not, catastrophes happen. Make sure your cloud-storage provider has a plan in place, should major data centers get knocked offline.

< Back to the main story: Can you trust your data to Amazon and other storage cloud provider? >

  • Share/Email
  • Tweet This
  • Comment
  • Print
Partner Content

Explore the Ultrium Edge

The powerful tape technology can address data security with tape encryption as well as long term data protection.

Find Out More

Disk and Tape Square Off

Discover what disk and tape really cost and which solution provides lower total cost of ownership and optimizes energy use for your organization

Download this White Paper

Don't Fall for the Myths

The Clipper Group explores the truth behind the myths of tape, digging into the misconceptions in the disk vs. tape debate.

Review this information

information examination

An examination of information security issues, methods and securing data with LTO-4 tape drive encryption

Read this analysis

Comments (1)
Login
Forgot your account info?

data protection, doing nvq level 2 business adminBy tony on August 29, 2008, 9:38 amData protection 1998....When would i need to disclose information about someone? Can you help me please send me an email to tony021290@hotmail.com. thanks

Reply | Read entire comment

View all comments

Add comment
Anonymous comments subject to approval. Register here for member benefits.
Have a NetworkWorld account? Log in here. Register now for a free account.

Videos

rssRss Feed