Are you in control of your cloud?

CIOs are happily adopting the cloud today. However, all of them have one common concern – “How do I know if I am in control of the cloud?” Typically, this question emerges either from horrifying security lapses, compliance audits or high (and unexpected) running costs.

The common response to such a conundrum is buying SaaS tools. Another common approach is to extend the tools used in private cloud to public cloud. However, without understanding the cloud well, you may end up making glaring mistakes. Bear in mind that if you end up with the wrong tool, you lose valuable resources installing, configuring, administering, monitoring and managing them. In fact, it will only serve to decrease your confidence in the cloud.

Before considering any tool’s implementation in cloud, ask yourself the following questions:

• What is not supposed to happen? What are the compliances you need to adhere to?
• What is supposed to happen? What governance practices and policies do you want to implement on the cloud?
• What is going on? What is to be reported? Who is it to be reported? How often should it be reported?
• What can go wrong? What are the risks that you must guard against? What risks are ok to live with?
• What if it goes wrong? What is the back-up, disaster recovery and business continuity plan?

Answering these questions will lead you to the right business priorities, budgets and workloads that can be planned on the cloud. Buying the tools comes next in line. That is the smart way to be in control of your cloud.