Multi-site bug exposes cloud computing's dark lining

It's your BOFH vs. their BOFH...

This has happened several time in the past with web server farms hosting multiple clients, and, indeed, is an issue that has been around since the days of time share and mainframes. A problem with a "core" application or service impacts all services that use the "core" will ALWAYS be a shared vulnerability.

The impact of these types of flaws has to be weighed against the cost and benefit of using the shared resource in the first place. While a larger number of clients WILL be affected by a problem on the common server platforms, the cost of mitigation and the impact of any loss of service and outage will, in all likelihood, be lower than a similar issue impacting stand-alone servers - simply because while ALL clients on a server may share the impact, remediation needs to be done once. And the discovery of a problem will likely be quicker, due to the number of clients that may report a problem vs. the total number of clients, some of which will NOT notice the failure.

To use a recent example: if Conficker hit one of these "cloud" systems, all the clients would be affected by it. However, remediation would also occur to all clients at the same time - including those that, with a stand-alone server, would NOT apply the fix in a timely manner.

No matter HOW or WHERE you host services, there is a probability that you will suffer an outage, that the outage WILL negatively impact business, and that repair will take time to implement. It's up to YOU to decide if you trust the service provider to adequately support you during an interruption, or if you trust your own IT apes to get it fixed or prevented any better.

So, as I see it, it's six-to-five-and-you-pick-'em.

Google et al

This is why I stopped using GMail and the rest of Google's integrated apps / labs. I became increasingly concerned that one day there will be a flaw in, say, Google Docs which allows someone to access the rest of the platform by, say, inserting a specific string into a cell. You get the idea. Since Google have no clear support route, and since Google are developing more and more half-done 'cool' projects, the potential for cross-application vulnerability appears to be expanding exponentially. Combine that with multiple vendors implementing various apps on the same platform and it's quite scary. One day there will be a large public exposure in one of these platforms and people will start to wake up a bit. Or probably not.

"An oversight by a single vendor..."

You mean like an oversight by a single vendor such as Adobe (Flash), Microsoft (...), etc? For non-cloud-computing in-house software?

I'm not saying there's not a vulnerability here. But non-cloud software can have security issues too.

@Brett Brennan

"No matter HOW or WHERE you host services, there is a probability that you will suffer an outage, that the outage WILL negatively impact business, and that repair will take time to implement."

::snicker::

My clients don't have that issue ... Some of us know how to run teh intrawebsoftware properly.

@Chris

"Since Google have no clear support route"

If you use paid-for Google Apps, you get dedicated e-mail and telephone support.

@jake

if your response to "what is the resolution time for outages?" is "never gunna happen", well i won't even get as far as asking you any more questions

what happens when one of your transit links goes down? do you have a time machine to go back in time to a few minutes before the JCB started digging and send out a withdraw so it has finished propagating before the line goes down? if so, could i borrow it for a couple of hours this evening? i have to send myself a couple of numbers...

@Mike

"if your response to "what is the resolution time for outages?" is "never gunna happen", well i won't even get as far as asking you any more questions"

Most corporate clients who need it see well over six nines, a couple are getting close to seven nines ... My Internet-facing home network and data has been up and available online for over a quarter century, non-stop, with no losses & no break ins.

"what happens when one of your transit links goes down?"

You do know what redundancy means, right?

"do you have a time machine to go back in time to a few minutes before the JCB started digging and send out a withdraw so it has finished propagating before the line goes down?"

JCB is a trademark, not a bit of kit. The standard unit you are looking for is "backhoe". HTH.

"if so, could i borrow it for a couple of hours this evening?"

No. But you can rent me for a few weeks. If you have to ask how much, you can't afford me.

"i have to send myself a couple of numbers..."

Whatever ...

title

Eggs and 1 basket come to mind

@AC 01:08

"You might be very competent in networking and well funded to boot, both of which can substantially reduce the likelihood of failure, but that likelihood is still some nonzero value."

No shit. I'm not perfect, and I don't claim to be. At some point I will probably lose data and/or become compromised. Hasn't happened yet ... but I keep my eyes & ears open. Paranoid? Not quite, but I'm getting there ;-)

"It's good to hear that you survived the massive attacks that home Internet connections suffered in 1985."

If you are referring to the Morris worm, that was November of '88 ... it didn't affect my systems at home. It DID affect my systems at work ...

If you are wondering, the generator runs on PG&E supplied gas, the fall-backs run on propane, and the battery is made up of several 8D "fire engine" lead-acid batteries, which get rotated out & rebuilt regularly. Data is backed up twice daily, both locally & to a couple of remote locations. Why all this trouble for a home network? Research. I do this for a living ...