Audits and compliance requirements for cloud computing

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Narendra S Sahoo.

Cloud security is a hotly debated topic in India today, with delegation of duties and responsibilities being the key areas of concern. Sales personnel will assure you of “all-inclusive services”, or, “Don’t worry, we are your partners, and everything will be to your satisfaction.” Yet, the client ends up disappointed. They needed apples, but the provider sold them oranges. The oranges are in good shape, but the client needed apples!

In my experience as the Director at a consultancy which has helped many organizations transition safely to the cloud, both sides are equally responsible for the mess. While providers fail to adequately understand client needs, clients think, “Once I sign up, it is their problem, not mine. I will hold up their payments”. Hence cloud audits and compliance are vital. “Audits and compliance” refer to all the internal and external processes that an organization implements in order to:…

Identify compliance requirements such as corporate policies and standards, laws and regulations as well as customer service level agreements (SLA).

• Implement policies, procedures, processes and systems to satisfy those compliance requirements.
• Monitor whether these policies, procedures and processes are followed diligently…

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