The Issue Most Often Cited in Cloud Computing

The issue most often cited in cloud computing are security issues. Most security experts alert their company about keeping data safe from intruders and outsiders, but there is also a need to ensure that the appropriate people were getting in. This includes a new set of users who have full access to your data, namely the cloud service administers. Now these new users have full access to proprietary, payroll, medical or product information.

Organizations should work with their cloud service provider to ascertain that there are controls in place to screen individuals who have access to data for administrative purposes. They need to understand where their data is located, have ongoing controls to authorize new users, de-activate users who no longer need access, know at all times who has access to the data and what they are doing with it. Controlling who can get to the data is the first and most important part of security monitoring.

Most companies who use cloud computing need to regain control of identity and access management. IAM encompasses the business processes and technology automation systems used to provision access, calculate risks to information resources, and eliminate those risks quickly and efficiently. It views data security from the perspective of ensuring that an appropriate user access policy is set; understanding and being able to identify who your users are; and granting them access that is appropriate to their roles in the organization.

An organization may want to end a service contract and want to transfer the data and change to a different cloud provider. The SLA service level agreement will state the format of the data, turnaround time and the amount of assistance provided. The contract should clearly state the format the database will be exported into so that it can be painlessly moved into a new system. Other considerations could be the turnaround time that files should be returned at the end of a