According to your readings, cloud computing represents one of the most significant paradigms shifts in information technology (IT) history, due to an extension of sharing an application-hosting provider that has been around for many years, and was common in highly regulated vertical industries like banks and health care institutions.  The author’s knowledge from their research continue to assert that, the impetus behind cloud computing lies on the idea that it provides economies of scale by spreading costs across many client organizations and pooling computing resources while matching client computing needs to consumption in a flexible, real-time version. 

Identify the issues and risks that pose concern to organizations storing data in the cloud -  briefly support your discussion.

Here are the posts for which responses are needed.

Post-1:

Storage of data on the cloud has many merits that have enabled the organizations to incorporate mobile computing in their operations, which has enhanced productivity. However, there have emerged issues and a lot of risks involved in accessing and storage of data on the cloud (Bloomstein, Meadows and Bort-Shatsky, 2016). These issues and risks about the storage of data include data privacy, lack of backup services, shared servers, data leakage, rogue devices, APIs and storage gateways, and lack of control on stored data.

The data stored in the cloud lacks very important privacy controls. This because the data is different from one stored on-site, and therefore, it can store somewhere in a cloud where it’s not possible to know how it could be blocked off from an authorized person. Hence sensitive information may end up in the wrong hands easily from the cloud (Dhote, 2016).

The data stored on the cloud lacks backup services that our data can be lost on the storage systems, and it is expected that an individual should come up with backups of the data stored in the cloud, which doesn’t happen hence ends up complaining. (Marinescu, 2017).Issues and risks still arise when the data is stored in a server shared by many users who need it. The risk that is likely occurring here is uploading dangerous information to your data through the same server, which may end up interfering with operations through it (Rittinghouse and Ransome, 2016).

The data stored on the cloud is prone to leakage. This occurs when a storage provider happens by accident to let some data into the wrong hands. The data could be sensitive to be in the hands of external sources. There might be a reason for an attack on an organization due to these serious problems that can arise because of even lack of control over stored data and the risk of issues that come with devices on accessing the information (Yan et al., 2016). This has called upon the making of more secure data storage systems.

APIs and storage gateways issue is about the destruction of data and hence making cloud computing inconvenient.

Post-2:

As we have learned from our reading assignments, cloud computing has many benefits. However, there are also challenges and risks that accompany storing data in the cloud. One major risk is data privacy, or rather the loss of it. Organizations that decide to store their corporate or customer data in the cloud are entrusting the cloud storage provider because the data will no longer reside on internal servers but on servers owned by an external entity. The organization (cloud customer) risks the loss of privacy because it will not be aware of the exact location of its data, which could be distributed across an entire cloud service provider’s infrastructure. How can they be sure the cloud provider utilizes the best security practices (ISO certification, independent security audits, data center certification)? The types of data that organizations store in the cloud include E-mail, web pages, customer data, employee personal data, financial data, intellectual properties, research data, and more. Placing the data into the hands of an external party can impact privacy of that data (Kamwan & Senivongse, 2016, January).

The challenge is how to trust that the cloud storage will properly manage and secure the sensitive data? According to Kamwan and Senivongse (2016), a lack of transparency in the cloud storage provider’s security practices and procedures is a risk that must be evaluated. One action that organizations can take is to evaluate the sensitivity of the data (i.e. high, medium, low) based on impact if privacy of data is lost. Then, as Kamwan and Senivongse (2019) propose, implement a methodology to determine the potential risk levels of privacy loss by the cloud provider based on that sensitivity. Repeat this with each cloud service provider candidate to determine which one meets their acceptable level of risk.