Avoiding the security pitfalls of cloud computing

Cloud computing has all the hallmarks of becoming a prevalent and valuable innovation that IT professionals should use to their advantage.

However, the dangers of hosting and accessing services and applications through the internet also need to be recognised: when 'in-the-cloud' an organisation can lose track of resources: who controls them and who is currently using which resources.

For those that don't know, cloud computing quite simply means vast computing resources reside somewhere in the ether (rather than in your computer room) and can be stitched together using an API to produce applications which can be used as needed. This has many benefits, with companies being able to increase capacity or add capability on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, train new personnel, or licence new software.