Threats
One of the biggest threats to cloud computing is the possibility of backlash from entrenched incumbents. While
we believe that many forward-looking organizations will see cloud computing as an opportunity to migrate to better
computing practices that open up exciting opportunities for the in-house IT staff, there will probably be many other IT
departments will view it as a threat to their corporate IT culture (in terms of data security, IT audit policies, etc.) or just in
terms of job security. Although small businesses have been quick to adapt and even welcome cloud computing, larger
corporate customers have voiced a plethora of concerns about handing over their operations to another company. Another
legitimate concern has centered on cloud providers going bankrupt, especially in a shrinking economy. Yet another
concern is security – in an ongoing survey conducted by the research firm IDC, almost 75 percent of IT executives and
CIOs report that security is their primary concern, followed by performance and reliability [24]. The cloud computing
industry continues to make rapid strides in all these areas, but it will still be interesting to see how all these threats play
out over the next few years in this nascent industry.
Several concerns have centered on the lack of standards. The cloud has been described as “a trap” by GNU creator
and Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman – one where companies like Google will force customers into
locked, proprietary systems that will gradually cost more and more over time. It is therefore encouraging to note that the
International Organization for Standardization‟s (ISO) technical committee for information technology has just announced
the formation of a new Subcommittee on Distributed Application Platforms and Services (DAPS) that includes working a
Study Group for standardization of cloud computing, with the goal of pursuing “active liaison and collaboration with all
appropriate bodies…to ensure the development and deployment of interoperable distributed application platform and
services standards in relevant areas.” More informally, industry professionals have coalesced to form several bodies like
the Open Web Foundation (formed in 2008) that promote the development and protection of open, non-proprietary
specifications for web technologies. Anticipating the backlash against proprietary cloud computing platforms, cloud
computing providers are also proactively promoting standards. The recent formation of EuroCloud (in 2009), backed by
more than 30 leading cloud computing vendors, to promote the development of standards in cloud computing across the
EU that coordinate with local issues at the national level of individual countries is a welcome step. Even individual
providers have promoted standards – for example, Google has formed the Data Liberation Front, an engineering team
within Google whose goal is to make it easier for users to move their data in and out of Google products [25]; and
Microsoft has recently filed a patent for a method that promises to streamline the process of moving from one cloud to
another, and in many cases completely automate the process [26].
Perhaps the biggest factor that will impede the adoption of the cloud computing paradigm is regulation at the
local, national, and international level. Regulation can range from data privacy and data access to audit requirements and
data location requirements. When corporate data are moved to the cloud, regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley and the
Health and Human Services Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) with their defined
requirements for physical data audit will come into play. Such and other requirements at the local, national and
international level (e.g. many nations have laws requiring SaaS providers to keep customer data and copyrighted material
within national boundaries) might negate many the benefits of cloud computing [27]. Regulation as an issue that is
important enough to warrant a separate discussion in itself, and Section 7 is devoted to that discussion.