Financial Data in the Cloud?

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Financial Data in the Cloud?

Phil Factor

SSC-Insane

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April 24, 2010 at 11:49 am

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Comments posted to this topic are about the item Financial Data in the Cloud?
Best wishes,
Phil Factor

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Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004402 More actions · Answer 1

I equate "Cloud Storage" to child care... who in their right mind would give their kids to someone they've never met and send them to a place they don't know location of nor who'll they'll run across even if based on the promises of a government agency that everything will be just fine even if a disaster occurs or strangers invade the premises. 😉

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EdVassie SSC Guru Points: 60476 More actions · Answer 2

I think cloud services are here to stay, at least until the next big thing. The financial argument for cloud is so good there will be a lot of pressure to get everything that fits into the cloud. Personally, I have no doubt that security capabilities in the cloud will improve to the point that certified vendors become the standard place to host financial data.

But there is a long long journey from where we are now to a cloud that is secure and resilient enough to host the 'crown jewels' of large enterprises.

I think wise organisations will put the low hanging fruit into the cloud first. Third-party applications where the customer has little control over how they are configured seem the lowest fruit to me. As cloud maturity and confidence grows, a wider range of applications will move. This could be to either hosted or in-house clouds, but move they will.

Original author: https://github.com/SQL-FineBuild/Common/wiki/ 1-click install and best practice configuration of SQL Server 2019, 2017 2016, 2014, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 and 2005.

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jwainz Right there with Babe Points: 739 More actions · Answer 3

Honestly, as security in the cloud matures, it will increase my reasons for putting my data there. Someone has to do the work to make my data safe. Either I do it, among the 30 other things I do, or someone else does it with dedicated staff. At some point they will do a better job than I because of resources.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736430 More actions · Answer 4

I do think things will mature, and we'll get data in the cloud. Even financial data, but it will not be the mainstream, IMHO. Just like the web, we'll get private clouds for secure stuff.

Wells Fargo manages their own data centers because it's important they control the servers; they wouldn't put it in a colo with other companies. Mint hosted their stuff as a startup because it was cheaper. We'll see that with cloud databases, just as we have with cloud web servers.

They have a time and place to be used, and fitting everything up there doesn't make sense.

KevinC. SSCommitted Points: 1570 More actions · Answer 5

Until Cloud vendors have a way of getting certified and certain procedures are hammered out (such as patch testing and audits), I think adoption will be slow for hi-risk groups like financial institutions.

However, I do think they will, eventually, adopt it in one form or another, even if it is their own data center, as Steve mentioned.

--

Kevin C.

jjenkins-1121658 Grasshopper Points: 11 More actions · Answer 6

I didn't understand the reference 'remote from sand and iron', anyone care to explain? Thanks.

LutzM SSC Guru Points: 107049 More actions · Answer 7

The benefit for storing data in the cloud is simply to save money. But the very same department that actually benefits from that (financial dptmt.) is unlikely to put their data in the clouds too: even within a company financial data are usually secured better than Fort Knox (most of the times for good reason, I hope 😉 ). Any company where the financial folks don't even trust their internal IT organization is more than unlikely to try cloud computing on financial data...

Lutz
A pessimist is an optimist with experience.

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Phil Factor SSC-Insane Points: 20244 More actions · Answer 8

I didn't understand the reference 'remote from sand and iron', anyone care to explain? Thanks.

[p]Sorry, I was getting a bit too poetic. I meant the actual physical computer equipment (silicon and hardware) [/p]

Best wishes,
Phil Factor

SQLRNNR SSC Guru Points: 281334 More actions · Answer 9

Jeff Moden (4/24/2010)
I equate "Cloud Storage" to child care... who in their right mind would give their kids to someone they've never met and send them to a place they don't know location of nor who'll they'll run across even if based on the promises of a government agency that everything will be just fine even if a disaster occurs or strangers invade the premises. 😉

Scary and sums it up for me.

Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
_______________________________________________
I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
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Karma-343206 SSCrazy Points: 2104 More actions · Answer 10

We've yet to see a test of what happens when a cloud service provider gets into financial difficulty. I'm not sure what the US law is when it comes to the appropriation of assets during a bankcruptcy and that is also an issue in and of itself. Is the US law different from the UK law or the Australian law. To big to fail?

What would happen when the administrators are appointed, how would they wind down the company? How would they recover monies to the creditors? What are the assets of the business? Are you an asset as a customer? If the sole purpose of the administrators is to recover as much money to the creditors as possible what $ value can they place on allowing you continued access to your data?

david_wendelken SSCrazy Points: 2388 More actions · Answer 11

When I got started in computers back in the early '80s, there was a business model called 'time-sharing'. Software was run on expensive mainframes and businesses shared those mainframes via a time-sharing service. They connected to the time-shared mainframes via dial-up using dumb terminals.

Browsers = dumb terminals.

The Cloud = time-shared mainframes.

Same reasons for and against apply. Nothing's really changed except the dial-up isn't at 300 baud any more. 🙂

You can rest assured that the techies working for the cloud won't be giving YOUR system personalized attention. That's because they'll be responsible for so many systems that they can't possibly do so. The major variable expenses for such an organization is labor so they'll minimize the staff necessary to do the work in order to boost the profits.

John Barnett SSCrazy Points: 2086 More actions · Answer 12

The EU directive on data protection (implemented in the UK as part of the Data Protection Act 1998) requires that personal data stay within a country in which the regulations have been enacted into law.

Unless the terms and conditions can guarantee that the data will stay within a country in which these have been enacted, or equivalent - such as the hosting provider having signed up to the Safe Harbor scheme (which effectively means they have to treat the data in line with the requirements of the DP Act 1998 and gives Europeans the right to sue in the US if they are not followed) then there is no way that any sort of personal information, not just financial, could be held outside the EU.

Phil Factor SSC-Insane Points: 20244 More actions · Answer 13

John, this is a fascinating thought. As I read it, it would be no defense for the director of a company guilty of a breach of the DP Act that he/she was unaware that the 'cloud' provider was holding the data in a country that was not a signatory to equivalent legislation. As fines up to half a million pounds can now be imposed, or even imprisonment, this might concentrate the mind of any manager considering a 'cloud' solution!

Best wishes,
Phil Factor

John Barnett SSCrazy Points: 2086 More actions · Answer 14

Effectively it means that any contract to store the data within a cloud or internet hosted environment would have to guarantee that the data would have to reside in a country within the EU with guarantees of it not moving outside it.

For those not aware of it (should have posted this earlier) details of the US Government safe harbor scheme are at http://www.export.gov/safeharbor/

John