I had a discussion with Wayne Rash the other day about security in cloud computing. He followed up with an excellent article in eWeek with the provocative title Is Cloud Computing Secure? Prove It. I’d encourage you to have a look; Wayne spoke to a number of well-known people in the industry, and they offer up some valuable insights in his piece.
Wayne is interesting to talk to. He’s a retired naval officer who has been in the IT business long enough to have earned a very broad perspective. Cloud has a lot of roots in earlier technologies (virtualization, time sharing, ASPs, outsourced data centres, etc). I find that it’s always instructive to discuss cloud computing with people like him who recognize not just the similarities, but also the differences between cloud and its antecedents.
If you ever meet Wayne, be sure and ask him about his experiences with Rear Admiral Grace Hopper.
K. Scott Morrison's Blog 