Contracts can’t control cloud risks

Grazed from IT News. Author: Jorn Bettin.

Any large, software-intensive business considering cloud computing needs to weigh up the risks of the cloud against its reliance on in-house legacy IT systems. There are several risks involved when sweating legacy systems – outages at the Royal Bank of Scotland and NAB serve to illustrate, as do countless unreported delays in introducing new features.

I have come across global banks with legacy systems that require a gestation period of 18 months from requirement specification to delivery into production for the smallest of new software features. Below the surface, web-based business software is redefining the story of outsourcing and blurring organisational boundaries to an extent where business executives are no longer in any position to list all the software services that are consumed by an organisation…

Most of the debate around cloud risks has been limited to the risks of using public cloud services from large global suppliers. I feel it’s time for a constructive debate over the quality of B2B software services from local providers of business infrastructure services…

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