Data Center Journal

Volume 33 | August 2014

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A ccording to the 2013 Fu- ture of Cloud Computing Survey, 1 75 percent of large organizations use or plan to implement cloud-computing strategies in the next 12 months. Despite this evidence of widespread cloud interest and adoption, surveys have shown that security in the cloud continues to be a concern. Part of the reticence around cloud security stems from the confusion as to who is responsible for protecting cus- 1 http://smartdatacollective.com/connectriahost- ing/191656/running-soware-cloud tomer data. Is it the cloud service provider (CSP)? Or is it the customer? Further, exactly what risks are customers facing when they move their data into the cloud? And how can customers be assured that they are partnered with the right provider that can protect their data? UNDERSTANDING THE THREAT Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are growing in frequency. A DDoS attack can be executed in a variety of fash- ions, but it occurs when a host connected to the Internet experiences a targeted ser- vice disruption. Unfortunately, the threat of a DDoS attack is very real; according to a recent report, the first quarter of 2014 showed a 39 percent increase in DDoS attacks. 2 When the attack occurs, CSPs are forced to prevent traffic from reaching the targeted destination, or "blackhole" the IP address of the customer that has been breached to protect other clients on the network. As a result, companies are quite literally held hostage by DDoS attackers on a regular basis. 2 http://www.prolexic.com/knowledge-center- ddos-attack-report-2014-q1.html BY ROB CARTER THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL | 17 www.datacenterjournal.com

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