by Angela Guess
A recent article by Sri Prakash discusses best practices for risk management in cloud computing. Prakash begins, “In a troubled economy, cloud computing seems like a great cost saving alternative and it is. Whether in good times or bad, any pragmatic cost saving measure is a ‘good’ measure. Google, Microsoft, IBM and all other known and unknown cloud providers offer today’s CIO an array of major cost saving alternatives to the traditional data center and IT department. The temptation to put things on/in the cloud and sit back can be extremely compelling. But like everything that appears too good to be true, cloud computing comes with a set of risks that CIOs and CTOs would do well to recognize before making the plunge.”
Prakash continues, “The extent to which an organization should move its information assets to the cloud and take advantage of the tremendous benefits by doing so is determined by the application of a risk assessment framework to all candidate information assets. For this, it’s essential to understand the risks and then have a mitigation strategy each.” The risks that Prakash goes on to identify include who can access your sensitive data, regulatory compliance, geographical spread of your data, data loss/recovery, and what happens when your provider gets acquired.
photo credit: Tambako the Jaguar
