The recent revelations of the US government's massive data mining efforts involving mobile phone carriers, technology companies, and the Internet, have a lot of people talking. Just today, a Wall Street Journal article talked about how CIOs might be feeling that there is no way to safeguard their data if the government is determined to access it.
While this article won't delve into the political or legal aspects of this debate, it is clear to me that this data mining activity has, and will continue to, cause many corporation and individuals around the world to think twice about cloud computing and about where their data actually is stored. In technical terms, this is a battle of big data versus private cloud, with each staking a claim of legitimacy in our lives and our businesses. I do, however, have a question to pose: what if big data and private did not have to be at odds?
Big Data
Many companies, including IBM, have made a big push towards big data recently touting tools that companies, including managed service providers, can use to manage many of the problems related to big data. The idea here is that large data sets will often reside in multiple areas and therefore, will need special tools and processes for managing it effectively.
While big data does encompass things like public cloud, it is not in and of itself a bad thing. Big data is just a term used to describe the management of large collections of data. I personally believe that MSPs will eventually have to deal with big data management issues sooner or later.
The point I'm making is that big data can exist in both the public and private clouds.
Private Cloud
On the other hand, private cloud, not an exact opposite of big data, implies that the data being stored is relatively confined. This data has boundaries that are known to the customer, and also the MSP. Again, I believe big data and private cloud are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
Furthermore, private cloud accomplishes something big data was never designed to tackle; data privacy and security. Which is precisely why I believe in the wake of all this data privacy debate we are having, CIOs will be re-evaluating where their data resides and who they allow to touch it.
It is possible to achieve data availability, security, and privacy while simultaneously achieving some of the cost benefits of cloud computing. The trick is knowing what questions to ask and how to evaluate your service provider.
For the time being, suffice it to say that all businesses should taking a fresh look at their information technology plans and deciding how best to safeguard their data from prying eyes.
Sign up for MSPAlliance's Bi-Monthly MSP & Cloud Journal. Follow us via RSS, Facebook, and Twitter. Interested in writing for MSPAlliance? Please contact us for more information.
