Andy Warren (1/3/2011)
Lutz, totally agree that security is a concern, especially if the physical implementation of the cloud is in a different country. Not arguing that it fits all cases, just that we should look at it in much the same way we consider Standard vs Enterprise Edition, or internal hosting vs a colo.
It seems like we're in a perfect "it depends" situation. I'm not ignoring Azur. But all I'd store there would be at the same security level like the stuff I would post on twitter/facebook ( = only stuff I'd allow to be known in public). Not even my stamp collection would go there (What if I had a "Blue Mauritius"? For sure that wouldn't go public!) ...
As a brief review of the history of data security as I see it right now (using a picture from the middle age):
We started with timber castles (database with limited security options, hosted on servers with no real firewalls).
Now we have castles with moat (multi-layer security from a firewall down to row -level encryption).
And if it's trendy right now to build cloud castles, then let it be. :-P:-P 😀