The Wall Street Journal highlighted what I think is a huge risk as we move at breakneck speeds towards Cloud Computing. We have no standardization or regulations in any way, shape, or form for the Cloud. What brought this to light? Amazon pulling Wikileaks off of their servers citing a Terms of Service violation outlined in their Service Level Agreement (SLA). This leads me to ask the question, “So, Wikileaks wasn’t violating their SLA before, only now?”. With many companies not paying attention to their SLA’s maybe it’s time to dust off the PDF and take a look. Although the Cloud offers unlimited possibility it seems that some companies should consider backup plans.
A couple of open ended questions
1. Should Cloud providers be constantly reviewing customers to determine whether or not they’re deserving of service?
2. Will this revelation slow down the adoption of Cloud Computing?
3. Who’s going to police the Cloud?
I’d love to hear your answers to these questions. We’re headed into uncharted waters with the big players such as; Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Apple calling the shots. Will the government step in or will companies choose to set their own rules and regulations?