IT Governance Blog on IT governance, risk management, compliance and information security.

Are you planning to use Cloud-based services to support or even replace the in-house IT capability in your organisation? You may have already been asked by users who want access to Web applications or indeed by senior managers who wish to cut the cost of IT in the current demanding financial climate.

How do you take advantage of Cloud Computing? How can you integrate these services with your existing IT system and ensure you effectively manage user access and security?

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Google today achieved another watershed moment by announcing it has won its largest enterprise customer. Spanish banking monolith BBVA has signed up to use google’s cloud computing service. It will provide tools for BBVA’s internal communication including well-known applications including gmail, video conferencing and google docs.

BBVA employs over 110,000 employees across 26 countries and its director of innovation, Carmen Herranz commented on the deal:

“The main goal is to promote innovation and making decisions and increase productivity. We are in a challenging market and need to make faster and more accurate decisions… and eliminate duplication…”

The way in which individuals work has changed dramatically in the last couple of years with the advent of smartphones, laptops and tablets. This has created a need for organisational information and applications to be available to employees at anytime, anywhere in the world. The old business adage that ‘time is money’ has never held more resonance, and cloud computing offers organisations the mobility, flexibility and efficiency that is required to stay ahead in the modern economy.

The banking sector has been seen as the most difficult area for cloud computing services to penetrate, due to security and confidentiality concerns. In today’s announcement, BBVA reported that all customer data would still be kept in its own data centres, however it is surely only a matter of time before these also start moving, metaphorically, skyward.

Cloud computing offers organisations many benefits, not least the fact that they only pay for the services they use. Reports suggest that the majority of companies have between 70-80% of computer power ideal and spend large portions of their IT budgets on upgrades. Sebastian Marotte, Vice President of Google Enterprise Europe, estimates that customers can save between 50%-70% by using cloud computing services.

Organisations across all sectors are realising the huge benefits that cloud computing can bring. For more information about cloud computing, and how it can help your business, click here >>>

IT Governance also offers a foundation training course in Cloud Computing. Read more about the Cloud Computing Foundation course here >>>

Source: BBC, Google

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More to explore …

CyberWar, CyberTerror, CyberCrime by Julie E. Mehan

Above the Clouds by Kevin T. McDonald

An Introduction to Information Security and ISO 27001 by Steve G. Watkins

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More to explore …

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Above the Clouds by Kevin T. McDonald

An Introduction to Information Security and ISO 27001 by Steve G. Watkins

The Government has announced that it has signed up the web host Memset as one of ten company’s trialing G-Cloud services. After months of rumour about the G-Cloud project, the Government is expected to produce is G-Cloud and the G-Cloud framework in the next few weeks. The announcement re-enforces the government’s desire to award 25% of G-Cloud contracts to small and midsized enterprises (SME’s).

But What is G-Cloud?

G-Cloud is the Government’s initiative to create a secure government cloud computing infrastructure. G-cloud could potentially create huge savings as public sector bodies require the use of similar applications and services.

The Government hopes to slash £3.2 billion off its annual £16 billion ICT budget through using G-Cloud, however Memset’s MD Kate Craig-Wood said expectations could be set higher if the project was executed to its maximum potential ‘saving the government 12billion per year by 2012’.

If you want to develop your understanding of Cloud Computing, its benefits and its risks, we recommend the highly acclaimed book ‘Above The Clouds’.

We also offer a range of other Cloud Computing books >>>

Cloud computing has been the subject of discussion for years, but now the pros seem to outweigh the cons as the EC stresses the importance of this service.

The European Commission’s (EC) Vice President, Neelie Kroes, announced that their goal was to “make Europe not just cloud-friendly but also cloud-active”.

Google’s Senior Policy Counsel for Europe, Marco Panicini, sums up that Google is fully behind the EC’s efforts of of being active within the cloud. He does have a few hesitations that Europe still has a little way to go on improving the current regulatory framework to maximise its full potential, but he believes that cloud computing will be great for the EU.  He claims that cloud computing is gaining momentum in Europe and that it will save users money, create a million jobs by 2016 and contribute between 0.1% to 0.4% of GDP for the EU.

A recent study by Professor Etro from the University of Venice suggested that Europe becoming cloud-active could cut costs in the public sector by 10-40%, whilst also helping to exploit SME’s.

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Last week, the EU became aware of a potential plan that the United States federal government  was going to “seize” EU citizen’s private data from cloud service providers.

The accuasation came about after Microsoft ’quietly’ let it slip that “cloud data stored on its European servers can still be handed over to American investigators”. This has sparked outrage throughout Europe as it conflicts with the European Data Protection Directive. The Directive states that it will protect the privacy of its citizens whilst demanding that its citizens are informed any time their data has been collected. The ‘USA PATRIOT Act of 2001′ (for which Microsoft comes under) authorises the gathering of “foreign intelligence infromation” from foreign nations, meaning that the U.S has access to anyone’s data.  To makes matters worse, the Directive can do little to stop the U.S from secretly seizing cloud data in the name of the PATRIOT act.

So with the U.S being able to “seize” data from anyone, anywhere in the world, at any time, does this mean that US law outweighs EU law? Can the U.S. continue to obtain cloud data from any nation without considering the implications they might leave behind in the foreign nations?

In my opinion, we should take the European Data Protection Directive to the next level. The Directive was put in place to harmonise data laws within each EU country. This should be stepped up a gear and a global and unified law should be addressed across all countries so we won’t ever come to the conclusion that one nation’s law overrules another’s.

Cloud Computing: A Practical Introduction to the Legal Issues is a practical resource for those involved in buying or providing cloud services. It sets out practical steps to address legal issues both in the regulatory context and in the context of contracts between customer and suppliers. It also deals with issues which arise when the cloud service is used by regulated sectors, such as financial services.

In the past few years ‘cloud computing’ has become “the phrase du jour”. From the time it was conceived, cloud computing has been on tongues of everyone who has had anything to do with facilities sharing of technological resources, software and digital information over the Internet.

“A cloud is a big wave in the global market, and India certainly is following the trends,” says Symantec vice-president Information Management Group, Vijay Mhaskar.

According to a recent report by IDC, 14% of companies in India are already using the public cloud, and another 76% are considering cloud computing within the next six months.

Another report suggests that the Indian cloud computing market was estimated at Rs 425 crore in 2010 and is expected to grow to Rs 2,200 crore by 2014.

In India, the platform is expected to mainly benefit SMEs (small and medium enterprises, SOHO (small office, home office) and consumer segments.

“Indian enterprises are discussing virtualisation and private/hybrid clouds. While agility and affordability are the main drivers, having fewer legacy systems is helping this transition,” Mhaskar said.

Security, security, security

This transition, however, brings in a new set of challenges related to security, scalability, and disaster preparedness. Data storage at cloud computing is secure as it is unaffected by computer’s crashing or any hardware or software problem. But again, as mentioned in our earlier post, security threat remains intact because if any server is attacked then all the data storage will be lost.

India has still ‘wait-and-watch’ approach to moving to the cloud completely. The awareness around emerging technologies is quite common in this country. However, enterprises tend to think twice before the complete implementation.

Organisations which decide to sit on the fence, when the cloud is increasingly gulping down more and more companies every day, are likely to get behind the curve of the next wave of innovation. Firms which acknowledge the increasingly growing technology can ensure the success of the cloud as an incredible weapon in their IT strategy.

If you want to make your busienss more efficient within the cloud computing environment, why not read our Above the Clouds: Managing Risk in the World of Cloud Computing eBook?

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So, if you still haven’t moved to the cloud – the time is now!