Cloud Connections 2011: Jim Reavis on Cloud Security

I'm in Las Vegas this week for the Mobile, Cloud, and Virtualization Connections conference, and attended a keynote this morning about "Building the Trusted Cloud" by Jim Reavis, Executive Director of the Cloud Security Alliance.

An increasing number of IT organizations are looking to the cloud for some of their IT resources, and Reavis argues that cloud computing is a disruptive technology that has the potential to change IT dramatically over the new few decades. While agreeing that cloud computing has been overly hyped in the short term, he believes that the long-term impact of cloud computing is being underestimated. Despite the potential of cloud computing, Reavis acknowledged that the industry needs to keep improving and advancing the state of security in the cloud.

Windows IT Pro Technical Director Sean Deuby and I sat with Reavis for a brief interview after his keynote to get his thoughts on cloud computing and cloud security. We'll post a full transcript of the interview in the near future, but here are some highlights:

On cloud computing myths and misconceptions: "The phrase 'cloud computing' is very generic...the reality is that the cloud is much more fragmented and complicated than that, with a lot of differences between services and use cases."

On the tension between IT pros and CIOs/management about cloud computing: "On the server admin side there is a fear of losing control and legitimate concerns about service levels and compliance...I've had some CEOs tell me they simply don't want to be in the IT business."

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