With more big data solutions moving to the cloud, how will that impact network performance and security?

There's no question that more big data solutions are moving to the cloud. How this is going to affect business networks has to do with the major benefits and disadvantages of cloud services.

On the performance side, cloud adoption is generally going to enhance performance and make network management easier, provided that the outsourcing systems businesses use are compatible with their existing processes, and user-friendly enough not to topple their internal business models. By putting some network resources outside of their in-house design, administrators can give themselves a more precise focus, allowing them to produce leaner and meaner business network operations.

The security side is where cloud may not have as much of a positive impact. Generally, as long as vendors implement correct and adequate security practices, there's not a lot of downside to cloud adoption, at least not in terms of security. The problem is where a vendor may not have adequate security, where the cloud model can produce its own kinds of vulnerabilities. This is most evident in public cloud multitenant systems, where internal data from one client company is kept directly next to data sets from another client company. There is an inherent problem here that needs to be solved – vendors have to assure clients that their specific data sets will be kept separate and treated with all of the right security and scrutiny, not only to prevent hacking and general unauthorized use, but to make sure that none of that data is somehow shared with competitors. Some companies worried about security with public multitenant cloud are choosing other options like hybrid or private cloud systems. The consensus is that where vendors can make these outsourced services secure, they can be of net benefit for clients.