IT security – and in particular cloud security – is a hot topic as analysts make their technology predictions for 2013. Having said that, the onset of cloud-based technologies has brought with it a new set of security concerns for IT decision makers.

“The more we try to simplify our operations through virtualization and cloud services, the more vulnerable we are to these sophisticated attacks, and the more costly they end up being,” according to Dell’s (News - Alert) Brian Jensen.

 Jensen recently pointed to Verizon’s 2012 data breach report, which showed that 94 percent of all their data breaches occur because of direct attacks on their server infrastructure. In addition to highly organized groups in organized crime looking to steal strategic information or disrupt enemies, mobile malware is also on the rise.

“Regardless of whether you can effectively anticipate and counteract future security threats on the basis of what you know about your current and evolving systems, you can always help reduce the damage of any threat by improving your response process now,” Jensen explained. “The faster you can recognize, identify and respond to security threats, the better your chance of limiting their scope, or even preventing significant breaches entirely.”

Bottom line: Organizations need to consider security measures around the design and maintenance of cloud hosting from the very beginning.

In related news, the topic of new data center management challenges was recently addressed – particularly how they would necessitate a more intelligent approach to capacity management. These challenges included an accelerated pace of workload efficiency due to workload mobility and transitory workloads in virtual infrastructures; balancing shared infrastructure for balanced and optimized efficiency; regulatory and policy compliance; and workload placement.

According to Andrew Hillier, co-founder and CTO, CiRBA, “Organizations need to evolve thinking about the management challenges that exist in order to effectively address them,” as well as “need to completely change the way they look at capacity management if they want to achieve the benefits of virtualization and cloud.”

To read more about these changes, click here. 

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