Cloud Computing has a huge potential ini Indonesia, according to Prof. Richardus Eko Indradjit from Perbanas in a roundtable discussion held by Kaspersky Lab, one of the leaders in Internet security, in Jakarta this week. There are multiple reasons. Among others, Indonesia has thousands of SMEs. These SMEs do not have adequate resources to buy, maintain and secure their information systems by themselves. With Cloud Computing, they can rent the services from the providers who reside inside the Cloud. This model alleviates the need for Capital Expenditure (Capex), which can overwhelm the SMEs. The Capex is converted into Operational Expenditure, which is more manageable. At the same time, the providers of the Software as a Service will be able to offer low cost to the users due to economies of scale. "The more parties using it, the better," explained Eko.
In addition, according to him, Cloud Computing is very attractive because businesses will no longer have to deal with technology complexity. The SMEs and also the corporations will be able to transfer their risks to the third party, namely, the service providers in the Cloud. Neither will they be burdened by the technology obsolescence problem, as technology may change before the ROI is reached.
However, Eko reminded, Cloud Computing inherently brings multiple risks. He raised a number of questions, such as who are those in the Cloud? Who manages the participants in the Cloud? Who are responsible for liabilities? What are the rules of the game in the Cloud, which involves multiple players? What is the model for managing database and information in the Cloud?
More specifically, prospective users of the Cloud's services should inquire how their data is protected? How do the providers address vulnerabilities? How do they mitigate attacks and exploitation? Eko warned, the strength of a chain is the same as the strength of its weakest link.
Therefore, security in the Cloud is the security of the Cloud's users.
In the meantime, Magnus Kalkuhl, Senior Virus Analyst, Global Research and Analysis Team, Kaspersky Lab, said that, whether we realize it or not, we are already using the Cloud in a lot of our activities, especially sending and receiving e-mail using Web mail.
To protect themselves in the Cloud, companies should make sure that the providers do not only promise security but show how they deliver it.
Next, everyone is too enthusiastic about the Cloud but they can count on it that the Cloud may fail as the Cloud is on the Internet, and the Internet does fail. What to do if the Internet fails? “Do you have a backup system or you would just simply have to wait until the Internet resume its services?” he challenged.
The freedom to switch is also very important, because every user has the right to switch to another service provider. If the service provider is an unreliable or a not trustworthy one and it is too costly or too difficult to change, then the user will be forced into a lockdown with that service provider with an unreliable system. Magnus reminded us of the importance of trust. "People need some degree of trust when they want to use the services offered by the Cloud," he stressed. That is why it is extremely important for users-both personal and businesses-to use the services of trustworthy and reliable providers, particularly a trustworthy security provider.
