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