Managing Compliance in the Cloud

Cloud services promise reduced costs, more automation, and mobility of end users but it has also introduced a new set of IT management complexities to deal with, regardless of whether it is the public, private or hybrid model. In this Computer World report, governance, risk and compliance is an issue as industry standards for information security and compliance need to be supported.

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"Security is one thing. Utilizing the cloud can also mean that sensitive data is stored off-shore and IT managers must also answer the question: Where in the world is my data, and what laws apply to it?

"The answer is far from straightforward. A myriad of standards need to be supported, such as ISO 27001 for information security, ISO 9000 for quality, compliance to privacy laws, the introduction of ITIL for the operations and quality of service. To do this, IT mangers must implement a robust governance structure.

"Compliance regulations are often geographically specific. The cloud can provide for agility and unanticipated growth through 'cloudbursting' — dynamically deploying software into the cloud to address a spike in demand — but cloud outages render applications and data unusable."

Read the Full Story at Computer World