Usually people don’t notice the “cloud” — unless, that is, it turns into a massive storm. Which was the case Tuesday when Amazon’s huge cloud-computing service suffered a major outage.

Amazon Web Services, by far the world’s largest provider of internet-based computing services, suffered an unspecified breakdown in its eastern U.S. region starting about midday Tuesday. The result: unprecedented and widespread performance problems for thousands of websites and apps.

While few services went down completely, thousands, if not tens of thousands, of companies had trouble with features ranging from file sharing to webfeeds to loading any type of data from Amazon’s “simple storage service,” known as S3. Amazon services began returning around 4 p.m. EST, and an hour later the company noted on its service site that S3 was fully recovered and “operating normally.”

THE CONCENTRATED CLOUD

The breakdown shows the risks of depending heavily on a few big companies for cloud computing. Amazon’s service is significantly larger by revenue than any of its nearest rivals — Microsoft’s Azure, Google’s Cloud Platform and IBM, according to Forrester Research.

With so few large providers, any outage can have a disproportionate effect. But some analysts argue that the Amazon outage doesn’t prove there’s a problem with cloud computing — it just highlights how reliable the cloud normally is.

The outage, said Forrester analyst Dave Bartoletti, shouldn’t cause companies to assume “the cloud is dangerous.”

Amazon’s problems began when one S3 region based in Virginia began to experience what the company called “increased error rates.” In a statement, Amazon said as of 4 p.m. EST it was still experiencing errors that were “impacting various AWS services.”

“We are working hard at repairing S3, believe we understand root cause, and are working on implementing what we believe will remediate the issue,” the company said.

WHY S3 MATTERS

Amazon S3 stores files and data for companies on remote servers. Amazon started offering it in 2006, and it’s used for everything from building websites and apps to storing images, customer data and commercial transactions.

“Anything you can think about storing in the most cost-effective way possible,” is how Rich Mogull, CEO of data security firm Securosis, puts it.

Since Amazon hasn’t said exactly what is happening yet, it’s hard to know just how serious the outage is. “We do know it’s bad,” Mogull said. “We just don’t know how bad.”

At S3 customers, the problem affected both “front-end” operations — meaning the websites and apps that users see — and back-end data processing that takes place out of sight. Some smaller online services, such as Trello, Scribd and IFTTT, appeared to be down for a while, although all have since recovered.

The corporate message service Slack, by contrast, stayed up, although it reported ” degraded service ” for some features. Users reported that file sharing in particular appeared to freeze up.

The Associated Press’ own photos, webfeeds and other online services were also affected.

TECHNICAL KNOCKOUTAGE

Major cloud-computing outages don’t occur very often — perhaps every year or two — but they do happen. In 2015, Amazon’s DynamoDB service, a cloud-based database, had problems that affected companies like Netflix and Medium. But usually providers have workarounds that can get things working again quickly.

“What’s really surprising to me is that there’s no fallback — usually there is some sort of backup plan to move data over, and it will be made available within a few minutes,” said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.

AFTEREFFECTS

Forrester’s Bartoletti said the problems on Tuesday could lead to some Amazon customers storing their data on Amazon’s servers in more than one location, or even shifting to other providers.

“A lot more large companies could look at their application architecture and ask ‘how could we have insulated ourselves a little bit more,'” he said. But he added, “I don’t think it fundamentally changes how incredibly reliable the S3 service has been.”

Source: By Mae Anderson, AP technology reporter NEW YORK — Feb 28, 2017, 7:50 PM ET

Mirrored Storage | Secure CLOUD Solutions for Business | mirroredstorage.com
Mirrored Storage provides cloud backup, cloud storage and a full range of Information Technology services to businesses in Dallas, Fort Worth and surrounding area.
By John Neibel | mirroredstorage.com

The biggest advantage of cloud storage is that it not only allows users to access files anytime, anywhere but readily sync them to enable sharing and coauthoring of the documents with ease. This advantage, however, makes it susceptible to security threats and attacks. Statistics reveal, most organizations find cloud storage to be the riskiest. This acts as a barrier to the adoption of cloud technology.

How does one ensure, if a cloud storage provider is reliable and can manage data of his enterprise with safety? Well, there appears no one-size-fits-all cloud storage solution. Every enterprise has different requirements, and such requirements should reflect while opting for cloud provider of choice. Security nevertheless should remain a top criterion for consideration. The following guidelines may help you to a large extent.

Security features for an Enterprise Cloud Storage Solution

We will follow somewhat a different approach here. Apart from features that make the use of service easy and secure, we should look out for the one that has the following red flags—and avoid them completely. Here’s a list!

Exit Strategy for Cloud Storage

When you are dissatisfied with a service, you may want to exit. However, exiting a Cloud services contract and switching to another provider can make the process expensive since. So make sure, your service provider is service compliant and includes exit mechanism as a part of a general risk strategy.

Reputation

Before signing any contract with a cloud service provider, have the following information about it at hand:

1.    Recent downtime
2.    Experience
3.    Price

If a no-name company is offering a great price, make sure to investigate testimonials because it raises a red flag.

Service agreements

The cloud service provider whose service you intend to use should make clear commitments about the kind of security infrastructure it has, where your data will reside or stored and the underlying technology to handle/manage it in a secure environment. All this information and other relevant information should be mentioned explicitly in the service agreement as this is a mark of transparency. Also, find a service with a strong privacy statement, one that doesn’t give permission for that service to browse your files.

Non-HTTPS site

HTTPS is an application-level protocol for secure communication over a computer network which is widely used on the Internet.  Sites not encrypted with HTTPS allow for easy interception of login credentials. If your login credentials are easily discoverable, hackers can have access to them. So, be sure to check if the cloud service provider uses ‘HTTPS’ protocol.

Compliance standards

Industry certifications and compliance standards deliver an assessment of a service provider based on industry knowledge. Obtaining industry certifications generally demonstrate a provider’s capabilities and often serve as a proof of reliable security. So, when you are looking for a cloud service provider, ensure certifications such as ISO and standards like HIPAA, FERPA, FISMA, SSAE 16, PMI are met.

All these parameters can serve as an objective way of comparing each cloud service provider and therefore help you in making an informed decision, says Microsoft.

As an individual, these free Cloud Storage Providers are sure to interest you.

Source: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/security-features-cloud-storage-solution

Our Two Cents:  This is a good start of the questions you should ask for your critical business data.  Check out our cloud storage offing and contact us for more information.

Mirrored Storage | Secure CLOUD Solutions for Business | mirroredstorage.com
Mirrored Storage provides cloud backup, cloud storage and a full range of Information Technology services to businesses in Dallas, Fort Worth and surrounding area.
By John Neibel | mirroredstorage.com