The security of cloud computing

3 years ago I signed up for a new account on Dropbox with no clue of what it did. Fast forward to today, it is on my shortlist of essential daily bookmarks on my internet browser. Cloud computing is quickly becoming the catch phrase today in technology and beyond. There is no doubt that cloud computing has changed the dynamics of products and global supply chains.

Information exchange is an important puzzle piece in the world of supply chains. With the entrance of cloud computing, information is shared instantaneously and effortlessly with the right technology.

In Supply Chains: The Next Killer Application in the Cloud,[1] the author asserts that, “moving supply-chain management into the cloud should make companies more agile. The cloud creates a natural space for companies to collaborate. Supply-chain applications in the cloud would make it a lot easier for companies to add and subtract from a network of supplier.” This notion that the cloud could provide an improvement to the supply chain looks to me like the new frontier of efficiencies.

However, I would be concerned with the access and security of information flow. A question I would have for this new frontier is how secure does an information line need to be to carry this information across continents and companies? I would be just as concerned with IT security and wonder if the technologies for this aspect are too expensive for successful implementation.

Analyst firm Gartner identifies 7 'cloud security risks':[2] user access, compliance, data location, data segregation, recovery, investigative report, and long-term viability. I would be interested in understanding more about how these risks are mitigated in the supply chain world. 

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[1] http://slashdot.org/topic/cloud/supply-chains-the-next-killer-application-in-the-cloud/

[2]  http://www.infoworld.com/d/security-central/gartner-seven-cloud-computing-security-risks-853?page=0,1