Cloud Compliance Looms Large for Global Enterprises

As more and more enterprises move to the cloud, cloud compliance becomes a key tenetfor operations. It’s important that data transfers within the cloud are conducted bycomplying with local and foreign regulations when working with 3rd party services.

According to Freebridge Associates research analyst Christine Zhang, “Cloud complianceis not a paltry issue to be ignored by enterprises. More and more countries andimplementing their own Cloud Compliance regulations, and their penalties encompasssubstantial fines and if warranted, imprisonment as well”.

Furthermore, It’s important that enterprises first become totally cognizant of which cloudservices are being used within their company by their employees. After discovering thoseservices, enterprises should examine the data, which is being transferred by those services.Then onwards, it’s important to know if that data is being transferred in a secure manner.This is especially important for cloud compliance reasons, as highly sensitive datatransfers must be done so in appropriate fashion. When sensitive data is transferred withthe cloud, its important that companies have access to data being transferred, to preventleaks and breaches.

Furthermore, if one is leveraging external cloud service providers, its important toexamine which regulations the providers abide by. Also, when using external cloudservice providers, its important to know what type of data should reside on their cloudservices, how they’re going to protect it, how they’re going to back it up and how youmay reserve the right to audit the security and compliance framework that they buildaround your data.

Furthermore, things can go awry at times. Thus, its important to create an incidentresponse plan for cloud security episodes. According to a recent Gartner report more thanfifty percent of Global 1000 companies will have confidential customer informationstored in the public Cloud by the end of 2016”. Thus, when transferring confidential datain the cloud, enterprises should be cognizant whether the data contains privateinformation that can be traced to the identity of the person. If so, appropriate protectionmeasures must be in place.

This is important because many federal governments have already implemented or aresoon to implement policies regarding the traceability of personal information to a specificidentity. Furthermore, there are many penalties for organizations that fail to protect thissensitive information. Consequently, its important that enterprises prioritize data privacyin terms of both Cloud Compliance and also as a threat to the enterprise, so they canprevent federal penalties and data breaches that can lead to brand marring and otherfinancial detriments. Ultimately, its more beneficial if organizations start cloudcompliance procedures now. Else, they will have to face the penalties, which includefines and/or imprisonment in most countries.

In summary, it’s important that chief information officers and information technologyteams work to comply with all data privacy and security regulations present in countriestheir data is processed or transferred to. Furthermore, due diligence on cloud providers isa must. By undergoing these procedures, enterprises can leverage the positives of thecloud while curtailing any risks and threats to their business.