Every company needs electricity, but that doesn’t require building a power plant. Many organizations have reached the same conclusion about computing and storage needs. Why build out data centers if it’s not your core business? Plus it can be a costly proposition.
That’s basically the premise of cloud computing: turn to trusted partners for your computing needs so you can focus on the business. But when deciding on a cloud strategy, organizations should be careful not to simply focus on saving money.
To be sure, moving to the cloud is economical and brings greater efficiencies, but it’s also an opportunity to re-examine everything from finance systems to enterprise resource planning and even the helpdesk. It can be a means of improving business efficiency over every operation that runs on software. Adding redundancy and automating backup are two functions most cloud providers offer, with more or less sophistication.
A cloud strategy, whether it’s for a public, private or hybrid cloud platform, is also an excellent place to rethink security and continuity strategy and options across the board.
Companies in highly regulated industries — such as finance, pharmaceuticals, defense or transportation, to name a few — have unique security and compliance concerns. Government contractors, for example, may be prohibited from sharing data with a foreign enterprise. What happens if a cloud provider uses offshore resources to maintain the infrastructure? How is data protected?
With a device in the pocket of nearly every employee and customer, many of them connecting through the cloud, simply adding layers of security would mean a missed opportunity. The username/password system, for instance, may have worked well enough when data and software resided in a stationary device or a company-owned server. With greater mobility, device certification or user certification may be a better option. Security can also be added with analytics around anomaly detection and correlation — beyond what most smaller enterprises could accomplish on their own.
What is the best way to remove friction while adding security and resiliency? For most organizations, the answer will be in the cloud. They can use services, which allow businesses to experience the true promises of the cloud by providing the assurances that no threat, whether it’s a natural disaster or a hacker, will affect business performance, customer loyalty, revenues or the reputation of their brand.
Laurence Guihard-Joly is General Manager of IBM’s Business Continuity & Resiliency Services (BCRS) worldwide. She is responsible for the strategy, portfolio, sales, alliances and delivery of BCRS, professional and managed outsourcing and cloud services to help clients worldwide manage their risks and achieve their business goals. Laurence earned the Scientific Graduation and her MBA from Lille Business University. She joined a consulting organization in 1983, before joining IBM in Paris in 1984.
A version of this story appeared on IBM’s A Smarter Planet blog on April 14.
This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.
No comments:
Post a Comment