A couple of years ago, the IT community ran out of superlatives to use for benefits that cloud computing brought in. It was the proverbial apple that would fall on our top lines…and make everything all right again. The Cloud would help cut costs, streamline processes, and provide secure, infinite space for hosting apps, storage and everything else in between.
Then the hype settled, adoption began, slowly at first and now, IT teams have a steady relationship with the Cloud – it’s here to stay, love it or have doubts on its faithfulness.
Today, after the euphoria has cleared, there are some points that come up, points that could prick the bubble, or hold up the tree. Things that will have to be accepted – like the cloud computing risks in security in these galloping adoption, the question of integration with the existing environment – are now on the forefront of debates. The community is sitting up and giving increasing attention to security applications for the Cloud. This has created a blossoming market for cloud security applications, and at this point, it is largely a matter of choosing the correct one for your enterprise, to ensure the maximum utility is derived from the adoption, overcoming cloud computing risks.
However, looking beyond the hype, doubts still persist; it’s like sharing an heir- specially the one that will be inheriting the title, with an outsider. The new kid on the block is amazing, but as a service platform, how will it integrate into a heterogeneous application environment? How will it deliver to the market expectations of secure, consistently available, high performing applications? Within its efficiency, how can an enterprise decide the correct mix- what part private, what part public, how much hybrid? What cocktail of Iaas, Paas and Saas will be the best optimisation model that will work for me? The obvious solution is to chalk out a clear, balanced, enterprise framework that will take into account all the advantages, assuage all the negatives and then decide which way to grow, and how much!
What should be the points to ponder before porting business critical applications and operations on a Cloud environment? How much risk can be taken, and where is the line to be drawn? There needs to be a clear framework for Cloud adoption in any enterprise or the loose ends can trip up the entire migration. Savings and all the benefits can only accrue when the entire adoption process takes care of every concern.
What is imperative for regulating all of these expectations and opinions are Cloud based service matrices that can lay down the SLAs and a clear governance structure that can ensure compliance.
