Call for participants: "The Cloud Security Debate: Is Cloud Computing More or Less Secure than Traditional In-house IT ?"

[David Lounsbury]

At it's upcoming Security Practitioners Conferences in Toronto, The
Open Group will be holding a moderated debate titled "The Cloud
Security Debate: Is Cloud Computing More or Less Secure than
Traditional In-house IT ?". We would like to extend an invitation to
members of the Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum to participate
in this debate.

The most frequently cited barrier to enterprise adoption of cloud
computing is security. Proponents of cloud computing often cite
centralized security controls, the ability of some cloud computing
services to limit access to specific, authorized IP addresses, and
robust, granular access controls as reasons that cloud computing can
be more secure than traditional IT. Those concerned about the inherent
security of cloud computing cite a myriad of security issues,
including the security of multi-tenant architectures, data security,
compliance and audit, and a host of other concerns. The answer to the
question that this debate poses is highly dependent on context, that
is, on the kind of cloud service being used (infrastructure, platform,
or software as a service), on the kind of data and applications to be
used, and on the robustness of the enterprise’s inhouse IT security.

This debate will explore both sides of the cloud security argument.

The panel will consist of one vendor and one customer representative
for each side of the debate. The panel will be moderated by Dana
Gardner.

On one side: Cloud Computing Is (Or Can Be) More Secure Than
Traditional IT Systems
Panelists: TBA

On the other side: Cloud Computing Is Less Secure Than Traditional IT
Systems
Panelists: Chris Hof, Rational Survivability

If you would like to participate as a panelist in this debate, please
send me your contact information, a brief bio and a short summary of
your position.

For more information on the event, see <http://www.opengroup.org/
toronto2009/>.

I'll also note we still have a couple of speaker slots open for the
track on "The Role of Enterprise Architecting in Cloud Computing" at
the Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Conference which runs at the
same time. In this session presenters will propose thoughts on the
role Enterprise Architecting in context to Cloud Computing ­ e.g. EA
could help establish the right standards to make Cloud Computing work,
EA could help guide customers on the appropriate places and conditions
to employ Cloud Computing, EA could go away and Cloud Computing
becomes the EA.

As above, if you would like to speak in this track, please send me
your contact information, a brief bio and a short abstract of your
presentation.

Dave Lounsbury
Email: <d.lou...@opengroup.org>
http://www.opengroup.org/collaboration-services/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidlounsbury