Cloud Over The Cloud Manifesto

There has been a bit of a bruhaha about the original cloud manifesto coming out.Looks like the basic tenets the original thinkers wanted to follow was of complete openness. Given that there are some inherent advantages in that paradigm of computing, also that several vendors are offering services on the cloud, the real ground swell of a revolution has not started yet.

One of the issue holding back customers has been the concern about security. I remember, the earlier avatar, the ASP model or the application service provider died off because of this kind of concern. The fact that the earlier recession had arrived the round the 2000-2001 did not help either. it simply got clubbed into the sad "bubble burst" phenomenon.

This time vendor lock-in also is a concern. The manifesto talks about not getting tangled into this issue and keeping things really open. And controversies have started. Some original participants have disowned the manifesto. Is it that they see a lock-in opportunity! That would really be short sighted. What needs to be done is a concerted push by all vendors to address the data security concerns rather than trying to protect teritorries.

The Ghost Net

News is floating around that a network of cyber espionage has compromised computers in 103 countries and mostly in foreighn ministries and embassies. A Canadian think tank has discovered the existence. they are not absolutely sure it has been organized by the Chinese government. Evidence does point to that though. So this too is a tool in the espionage activities.

As in the real world cat and mouse games espionage, counter-espionage activities will keep growing. What botheres me though is whatever infrasructure we have now, the computers, the operating systems in them, the networks;particularly the Internet were never designed against such things. The Internet was designed to be a open forum for collaboration when it started.

I am sure as things eveolve all these will start becoming robust agains such malpractices. The internet probably would take the most time to make it really secure. Hopefully it too will become totally secure someday!