Cisco Global Study: Cloud network migration / mobile security key concerns among IT decision-makers

cisco global study cloud network migration mobile security key concerns among it decision makers
Cloud network migration

The process of ordering new IT services is evolving away from those common methods used in the past, where IT decisions and purchase orders started at the top of the company pyramid.

Today, the shift in planning and control of IT purchases is being driven by departmental needs.

Does HR see a more efficient and secure way, ala Office 365/SharePoint, to store and share employee profiles and information?

What HIPPA compliance measures need to be considered when determine storage and sharing of documents?

If so, their demand may be more urgent than, say, sales; the latter may be okay for the short term using silos of separate info residing on Excel or in Outlook.

Cisco

Increasingly, those decisions to purchase new platforms are moving from the traditional top-down approach to accommodate requirements from specific ‘lines of business (LOBs),” like sales and R&D, for example; this, according to a recent global study by Cisco Consulting Services that surveyed 4,000 IT decision makers.

The reason for the shift? Mainly, it has to do with the proliferation of mobile devices and the culture of BYOD in the workplace. As such, there is a recognized need for more control in cloud network migration among departments within an organization or business. In fact, 82 percent of those surveyed by Cisco were planning welcoming more such devices, which in turn would call for compliance and security measures.

For example, if an employee is cleared to use his own mobile device, and changes to another device, what is the policy to track and store sensitive info, particularly if the employee lives the company?

Pandora’s box opens wider with each tech advance. Moreover, by the year 2016 the report expects that cloud services will account for about 27% of IT spending.

To learn more about transition certain services and software functions to the cloud, contact us. Discover why more and more clients are coming to rely on us as their managed service provider.

What You Need to Know About Hybrid Cloud Security and Other Risks

what you need to know about hybrid cloud security and other risks

According to a report published by Gartner, the cloud is about to transition into a prolonged phase towards mainstream adoption. Its “hype” bubble, which affects all burgeoning technologies before they are fully embraced, burst somewhere in the midpoint of 2012. 2013 is considered a critical year for hybrid clouds and they are are an important consideration for businesses because they are still parsing out which functions can be exposed to the risks of public cloud and which are best left private.

In the general case this will mean gradual cloud network migration as the risks are vetted by one by one. Some of the challenges hybrid cloud introduces are in compliance, security management, and meeting service-level agreements (SLA).

Compliance

High-stakes enterprises benefit from implementing hybrid cloud solutions, but they must also remain compliant with regulations such as PCI and HIPAA. Maintaining compliance with such standards using cloud systems is not as inherently onerous as some would think – in fact they were designed to be platform-agnostic. For example, if requirements such as a firewalls or encryption of personal data are in place, it does not matter what technology or architecture is used to implement them.

However, with a hybrid cloud data moves with relative ease between public and private, meaning that there are additional points of scrutiny adding to the challenge of compliance. Not only must the public and private components of the solution be up to standard, the coordination between the two must be compliant as well.

Security Management

In order to manage the security of a network, multiple controls must be in place such as authentication and credentials. Hybrid cloud introduces the complication that these security items may need to be replicated on both the public and private side, meaning potential skew and additional points by which access may be compromised.

SLA Issues

Public cloud providers go out of their way to make good on SLA promises of uptime that exceeds 99% and approaches perfect availability. However, when an organization mixes public cloud with private cloud, it must account for the fact that it may not be able to meet such an SLA from the private side and should craft its agreements realistically.

For more on the risks and challenges of cloud network migration, contact a trusted cloud solution provider.