Cloud Computing

Azure, Dallas all the buzz at PDC 2009

The Professional Developers Conference is taking place in Los Angeles this week, and to no surprise, the Microsoft keynotes were all about the cloud. As we heard from Brent Ozar last month, developers are the company’s targets for its current and upcoming slate of cloud-based technologies, so what better place to show them off than PDC?

The crux of this of course is Microsoft’s Azure and SQL Azure programs, which will be available as a paid service starting Jan. 1, 2010. While much of the new improvements surrounding SQL Azure were already talked up during the PASS Community Summit earlier this month, there were also a few new Microsoft cloud developments that made news this week.
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Are security concerns over cloud computing unfounded?

It seems the biggest reservation people have when it comes to the cloud involves the added security risks – the whole idea that “you can’t control what you can’t see.” But is that really the case, or is it more of a knee-jerk reaction from those unfamiliar with the cloud?

Last week I spoke with John Welch about how data warehousing fits into a cloud-based model. Welch is a chief architect with North Carolina-based business intelligence consulting firm Mariner, and he’s scheduled to speak at PASS 2009 on BI and cloud computing.

During our conversation, I asked him a general question about whether he thought the security risks associated with the cloud are myth or reality. Here’s what he had to say:
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