Look beyond cloud's silver lining

System failures in recent weeks involving such companies as Amazon.com Inc. and Sony Corp. have cast doubts on the security and reliability of cloud computing, and should put financial advisers on high alert.

First, Amazon Web Services, which offers computing services and data storage over the Internet, disclosed at the end of April that a technical glitch had caused numerous websites that it hosts for other businesses to run at a snail's pace. The same day, Sony said that personal data of nearly 100 million customers of its gaming services, PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment, had been hijacked by hackers.

The two crises, though different, raise serious questions about the safety of cloud-based systems and should give advisers plenty of pause before deciding to move client information and applications from their hard drives to remote central servers.

Still 44% of the advisers who use the cloud said their top reason is that it makes technology management easier, according to the survey.

chromebook cloud computing acer cloud internet laptop

Read More: