In today's hyperconnected landscape, the cloud sits at the very heart of business innovation, empowering companies to adapt, thrive, and scale amidst ever-evolving dynamics. However, with great power comes great responsibility. As more and more businesses migrate their operations to the cloud, effectively managing and controlling these cloud resources becomes a crucial consideration. This is where cloud governance comes into the picture.
So, what exactly is cloud governance? Why is it vital for your business? And how does it work? These are some fundamental aspects you will explore in this article.
What is cloud governance?
Cloud governance refers to the set of policies, processes, and procedures that organisations implement to manage their cloud resources effectively. It involves defining roles and responsibilities, establishing guidelines for access and usage, and ensuring compliance with regulations. In short, cloud governance is all about maintaining control over your cloud environment to achieve business objectives while mitigating risks and optimising costs.
Why cloud governance is crucial for organisations?
Cloud governance is not just a choice but an essential component for organisations in their journey towards digital transformation. It serves as the foundation for ensuring seamless, secure, and efficient cloud operations. An effective cloud governance can help organisations to reap multiple benefits such as:
1. Improves access control and visibility
A well-implemented cloud governance strategy significantly enhances access control, providing organisations with more command over who can access certain resources within their cloud environment. It enables the setting up of stringent access rules and permissions, minimising the risk of unauthorised access and potential data breaches. Furthermore, with an effective cloud governance plan, IT administrators can have full visibility across all of their organisation’s cloud assets.
2. Minimises security risks
Cloud governance establishes a robust framework of policies and procedures that enforce security measures such as encryption, multi-factor authentication, and firewalls. With a well-defined cloud governance strategy in place, organisations can manage vulnerabilities and keep potential threats at bay. It enables routine audits of cloud assets, ensuring any security breaches can be detected and addressed promptly, thereby safeguarding sensitive business information, and preserving customer trust.
3. Enhances compliance readiness
Having an effective cloud governance strategy bolsters an organisation's compliance readiness. It ensures that the company's cloud operations align with industry regulations, legal requirements, and privacy laws. For instance, a company dealing with customer data would need to adhere to regulations like UK GDPR and DPA 2018. The framework provides clear guidance on data handling and storage procedures, helping to maintain compliance with these laws.
4. Reduces costs
Without a structured approach to cloud resource usage, organisations may experience cost overruns due to wasted resources, inefficient processes, or poor services. A well-defined cloud governance framework includes guidelines for resource utilisation, scaling services based on demand, and avoiding unnecessary expenditure on idle or underutilised resources. It also enables cost audits, monitoring, and reporting, providing insights into cloud spending patterns and identifying potential cost-saving opportunities.
What are the principles of cloud governance?
Cloud governance is grounded on five key principles. These principles serve as a guide to organisations in defining their governance strategy and ensuring it aligns with their overall business objectives.
- Operation management: In any organisation, clarity on who is responsible for what is key to efficient cloud governance. This involves defining who in the organisation can decide on cloud usage, who can access and control the cloud resources, and who will be responsible for monitoring and managing these resources. This clarity can prevent conflicts and confusion, ensuring smooth operation of the cloud infrastructure.
- Financial management: A crucial part of cloud governance is ensuring financial control over cloud resource usage. This principle governs procedures for budget planning, monitoring costs, and identifying cost-saving opportunities, all while ensuring the organisation's services are scaled according to demand.
- Data management: Data is the lifeblood of most businesses, and cloud governance plays a crucial role in preserving and protecting this data. It involves defining clear guidelines for data access, storage, backup, retention, and deletion to ensure data security and compliance with regulatory standards.
- Security and compliance management: A cloud governance framework must include robust security measures to protect against potential threats and ensure compliance with relevant standards. This includes implementing access control, encryption, and monitoring tools, conducting routine audits, and promptly addressing any identified vulnerabilities or breaches.
- Performance management: Finally, the performance management principle focuses on monitoring and optimising cloud resource usage to maximise business efficiency. This involves setting metrics for cloud service performance, establishing capacity planning guidelines, and continuously monitoring and reporting on cloud costs and utilisation.
How to create a robust cloud governance framework?
Now as you know the basic principles of cloud governance model, let's move further to understand how can you design a solid framework. Here's a step-by-step process of how it works:
- Establishing governance structure: The first step in cloud governance involves establishing a governance structure. This usually comprises a cross-functional team, which includes key stakeholders from various departments and levels within the organisation. The team is responsible for developing, overseeing, and maintaining the cloud governance strategy.
- Defining cloud policies and procedures: The governance team then sets about defining cloud policies and procedures that align with the organisation's business needs and regulatory requirements. These policies include guidelines on cloud usage, access controls, security measures, and resource management, among others.
- Implementing governance tools: The team also employs various cloud governance tools to automate and streamline the monitoring and management of their cloud environment. These tools can help enforce policies, ensure compliance, and provide visibility into cloud resource usage and costs.
- Continuous monitoring and auditing: Once the governance framework is in place, the team carries out constant monitoring to ensure compliance and detect potential security threats. Regular audits are also performed to assess the effectiveness of the governance framework and make necessary adjustments.
- Regular review and updates: Cloud governance is not a static process. As the organisation's business needs, technology landscape, and regulatory environment evolve, the governance framework needs to be regularly reviewed and updated to remain effective and relevant.
Boost your cloud resource management with Advanced!
At Advanced, we are dedicated to empowering organisations by equipping them with the necessary tools and knowledge to confidently navigate the cloud. Our integrated platform of governance and risk management provides unparalleled visibility, control, and precision over your cloud operations. We assist you in achieving your business objectives while mitigating risks and optimising costs. We recognise that every organisation's cloud journey is unique, and our solutions are designed to adapt to your specific requirements.
Curious to know more about your cloud technology? Read Is your Cloud-based platform working effectively? and gain in-depth understanding of how to make the most of your cloud environment.