Cloud computing proponents have gone to great lengths to satisfy everyone’s security-related fears, and in many ways, they’ve succeeded.  Just the same, there are respects in which cloud-based databases can fail to measure up to traditional options, and database pros should be familiar with these potential weaknesses.

Adrian Lane discussed four issues in a Dark Reading post published this morning.  The first was deployment. He explained, “Many cloud providers do not allow common security technologies to be deployed at all.  These technologies either violate your service contract or the infrastructure they provide doesn’t accommodate them.”

Next, look out for visibility problems.  Lane warned, “[I]f you are moving to a database-as-a-service or pure SaaS model, make sure you have assessment and auditing options to verify that your provider is living up to your expectations.”  Also, “For platform-as-a-service, verify that the tools you use today will deploy and continue to function in the cloud, and that your provider does not have the ability to gain credentials to your database.”

The third thing to be careful of is a co-mingling of data.  Even if a service provider has effectively blindfolded itself, it might still be possible for other customers to access stuff that’s supposed to be off-limits.

Finally, read the service agreement to make sure you’re getting everything else you want, and that there are penalties in place if the provider fails to deliver.