There were a number of dynamics involved in contributing to the evolution of Cloud Computing.

Virtualization technologies, high-bandwidth internet & communication technologies, delivery of enterprise apps, software inter-operability standards Web 2.0 were some of the key influencing factors for the emergence of the "CLOUD" world!

In 1999, the face of Cloud Computing entered the corporate world with the introduction of SalesForce.com to deliver Enterprise Applications over the internet. This marked the beginning of Software As A Service (SaaS). In 2006, Infrastructure As A Service (IaaS) and Platform As A Service (PaaS) were introduced by Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) commercial web service. In 2009, Google & Microsoft entered into the foray of offering enterprise application services! Read the rest of this entry »

If you were to sign up for a Cloud Service, be it Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) or Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), what are the questions that you would ask? I have tried to list down most of the questions, however, feel free to be extra cautious and do due diligence before you sign the dotted line! Read the rest of this entry »

What is a Penetration Test?

It is a security testing methodology that gives us an insight into the strength of the Cloud network security by simulating an attack from unknown malicious source. It involves an active analysis of the cloud service for potential vulnerabilities due to incorrect system configuration, hardware / software flaws, or operating system level weaknesses. This analysis is carried out from the perspective of a potential hacker and can involve active exploitation of security vulnerabilities. The intent of this test is to proactively determine the feasibility of a hack attack and also try to determine the extent of damage to the business.Read the rest of this entry »