CloudPassage Cloud Security Product Review

Updated:I came across a white paper published by CloudPassage, most likely in the attempt to drive interest in their cloud security product.  It worked, since it resulted in my doing a little digging into their product.  They did bring up a security threat I hadn’t thought of and it was just enticing enough to get me to investigate their offering a little further.  Their paper was focused on Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) environments like Amazon Web Services (AWS) (reviewed here), or Rackspace (reviewed here).  The CloudPassage paper focused on the security threats within the context of the products that they offer in order to mitigate these threats.

I will review some of the key points made by CloudPassage here, and then I’ll review their solution offering.   Hang on though -- this article assumes you understand cloud IaaS, and some general Linux and security topics.

Evaluating Software as a Service

The allure of the cloud for faster deployments of new capabilities with potentially lower equipment and labor costs are hard to turn away from.  For small businesses that either don’t have the capacity or don’t wish to grow their data center, the cloud can be the way to go.  I’ll first focus on evaluating software as a service (SaaS) solutions.  The assumption here is that you will, at a minimum, evaluate SaaS against a local deployment of the solution.  In the near future, I’ll focus on how you might evaluate using Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - using the cloud like a data center.

My example evaluation below will use a simple table in a spreadsheet.  The table can contain as many columns as you have solution options.  I’ll break up the evaluation into two sections, one for items that we can put a dollar figure on, one that will contain a rating with a possible multiplier.  The multiplier services as a weighting mechanism where the higher the multiplier, the more important the feature or capability is.  When using a rating (say 1 to 5), larger is better.  I’ll draw from my earlier posts, “Benefits of Cloud Computing” and “Challenges and Risks of Cloud Computing” to help come up with the rating criteria.

How to Get Started With Cloud Computing

Some IT departments want to utilize public cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS), or Software as a Service (SaaS) but aren’t sure how to get started.  I’ll discuss some ways to use cloud computing as you flesh out how you will use it and integrate into an existing information technology architecture.  If you’re not sure what IaaS is, read my previous article, “Exploring Amazon’s Cloud IaaS & PaaS”.

Using Google's Two-Factor Authentication

UPDATE:  If you've read about Gmail account passwords getting stolen (hackers getting users to load a fake page and stealing password) and you are concerned, you really should read this.  Had those users turned on Google’s “Two-Step Verification” they probably wouldn't have been hacked.

Google introduced what's known in the industry as "two-factor authentication” last year.  Google calls it "2-step verification".  Although I use a two-factor authentication system every day for the company I work for and have used others in the past, it’s time to tighten my security belt. In addition, I feel that if I’m going to write about Google’s system, I really should be using it.  Actually I think you should too.  Security is in the news a lot more these days and people are putting more of their lives into the cloud.  If you use Google Docs and other services like I do, you should be doing a better job of ensuring your stuff is secure and private.  

After the break, I’ll explain what it is, how it works, and how to turn it on for your Google account.

What's New in Google Apps

Originaly published on 2/1/2011
As promised, this is my what’s new article on Google Apps. Google Docs has been around since 2006 and has been going through a continual cycle of enhance and extend (as I discussed in 2008). 2010 marked a time of furious change in Google Docs, now a part of a suite of tools called Google Apps, and I’ll review some of those here. This rapid release of change is partially enabled because of Google's distribution system, the Internet. This is an advantage of cloud computing (for the most part) over the client software in a box method because there is nothing to install and users don't have to "upgrade". Upgrades are released to everyone at once (mostly). If you receive a feature you don't like though, it could turn into a disadvantage.

Before identifying what’s new, a quick description is in order. In general, Google Apps is a suite of online office productivity tools. Individual users can access most of these tools using a Google Gmail account. The basic tool set covers all the classic office productivity tools similar to those found in Microsoft Office Basic. All access to Google Apps is via the WEB and users’ data lives in the “cloud” on Google servers where it is regularly backed up, and accessible from anywhere, and any device. When people think of operating “in the cloud” this is a prime example.
UPDATE: Look at the end of this article for a update regarding mobile

Google Released “Google Cloud Connect” Today

Today, Google took their MS Office plugin out of BETA and release Google Cloud Connect (GCC), a way to easily share and edit documents real-time with others. The video on their announcement is very compelling.  From their blog:" It adds simultaneous collaboration, revision history, cloud sync, unique URLs and simple sharing to the Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint applications."

Cloud Connect is a very smooth move by Google as a way to demonstrate the power of real-time collaboration without leaving the coveted Microsoft Office Environment.  Check out the announcement. By using GCC, users gain many of the advantages of using Google Docs without leaving MS Office. I'll write more when I have a chance to try it out.

Using the "Power" of Cloud Computing with Evernote

Evernote.com is another great example of a powerful cloud computing application that has many of the benefits of cloud computing. I use Evernote to drop items into a notebook that I need to be able to access from anywhere, (iPhone or any web connected computer). Being able to access information from anywhere and via any device is a key benefit to cloud computing. The real power Evernote brings to the table, in my opinion, is OCR, making everything I upload searchable. Then I thought, why not scan in all the paper that I keep (bills, etc) and put it into Evernote. What would happen?

Update (2/21/11): After using Evernote for about a year, I've updated this article with my discoveries and experiences.  Also added new features in iPhone app released on 3/1/2011 at bottom.

Online Invoicing In The Cloud

I recently started moving more of my business into the cloud. The business cloud application examples I’ve written about so far are more related to office productivity - word-processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. I took my small business and put its invoicing into the cloud by using the software as a service model (SAAS). Although I used ZOHO Invoice to do this, I’ll quickly discuss ZOHO along with others in it's class, like FreshBooks.

By utilizing this model, I’m saving money on software, can work from anywhere (they even have an app for the iPhone), and I look more professional. In addition, I can have multiple users, and I don’t have to deal with software licenses, upgrades or hassle that comes with installing off-the-shelf applications like this. The solution integrates with Google apps and has cool PayPal integration making you look good and boost productivity. While I was finalizing this post, ZOHO released a full accounting module that would of course include invoicing.  (Updated 6/20/11)

Wave Bye Bye

When you look at Google Wave, and the fact that Google is pulling it, I don't think so much about failure as I do about Google continuing to build intellectual capital (IC).

They were brave enough to take a chance at re-inventing how people collaborate and work together, it wasn't accepted by enough users and is being pulled by Google, but in the end, Google wins.

Voice As A Cloud Service

I've never really thought of phone service as something that you can move to the cloud until reading a white paper from Polycom and Broadsoft. Companies like Onsip, Vocalocity and others are doing this today and market it as "Hosted VoIP". I don't typically think of phone service when I think cloud computing but when comparing it to the advantages of cloud computing, it's a good fit.

Google Analytics, A Free and Powerful Cloud Service

Google Analytics is a free service that you can use from Google to get usage statistics on your various web sites. It’s not only free, it’s powerful, and it’s another example of a cloud based services. I use it on all of my web properties where I can. Analytics can help you not only understand how people are using your site but help you improve sales, increase revenue from advertising, lower support costs, increase customer satisfaction, find dead pages and more. Understanding how people get to and use your site can have huge benefits to large and small sites. This article will explain how it works, features of Google Analytics, how to implement it on your site and a look into why everyone doesn’t use it.

My Flickr Tips and How It's an excellent Example of Cloud Computing

Flickr & Cloud Computing

My sister-in-law recently started asking me about Flickr. As I started writing her, I realized that I was not only talking about the power of Flickr itself, but alsothe power of “Cloud computing”. I’m a heavy user of Flickr and in this post, you’ll see a some of my quick tips on how to use Flickr as well as how Flickr is another great example of cloud computing.

Backup your PC to the NET, or just backup!

Have a laptop or PC you don't back-up. If you have a USB drive for backups, do you use it? Where do you put your backups in case there is a fire? OK, most of you are probably saying you have a problem. I've helped many a friend transfer or try to recover data because of a disk crash or mistake. Millions of people loose data every year because of theft, fire, or system failures. Don't be one of them!

!Update! (2/26/2012)
Please read the updates at the end of this article.

Google Wave, I've gotta get me some of that!

After looking over all the preview materials, hype and papers written by early look users (and now the early adopters) as well as Google’s videos about Google Wave, I initially thought it was a solution to a problem that I didn’t have. It was confusing. As the product steeps / ferments/ matures in the back of my brain, it’s exactly something that I could useat work… all day. In fact, I want it right now!!!

Continous Evolution

Google just announced a couple of new features and an apology for the outage last week. For me, I’ve already enabled the SSL feature (rolled out over a week ago).

When reviewers compare Google Apps to things like MS Office they don't take into account that it's just a snapshot in time which is no longer valid in Web 2.0 time frames. This approach used to be accepted since competitors would release major changes & features at best every 6 months. What the major zines fail to realize (and possibly desktop application vendors as well) is that web based apps like gMail, and other Google Apps are on a continual release train that delivers in weeks, not months and years. Features arrive all the time. Fixes are applied and instantly used by millions within hours. This is yet another example of that. Sure Google Apps may not be completely on-par with MS Office, but the trend is that it can sneak up and bite them when no one is looking.

In addition to this, innovative hackers have enhanced Google Apps with Firefox plug-ins and whole applications. RememberTheMilk.com is a perfect example. They graft their ToDo list management system directly onto gMail using Firefox in a very innovative way (innovative to me) to make up for missing functionality. Now take all of this together, add mobility detection and other features and you have excellent integration with all Google Apps on mobile device (iPhone for me) that surpasses any total solution out there.

Just as important is that Google is learning to deliver application on a massive scale. Something that comes only with experience and a few stubbed toes along the way. Enter stage right the Google application development environment and the future potential is staggering. Am I a Google groupie? Yes. Does this apply to the SAAS web application delivery industry as a whole, absolutely. We are sitting on the cusp of a very large change.

If you read this far I thank you.
Chris Claborne