Dark Clouds on the Horizon? Your Data is Everywhere, Whether You Like It Or Not

Grazed from SpendMatters. Author: Editorial Staff.

Mention cloud-computing in polite society and the chances are you’ll be met with raised eyebrows and even the slightly terrified shudder. The notion that your procurement data might be “out there” somewhere – you know, hosted, on some who-knows-what servers in some low-cost data center in Obscuristan— is enough to make you want to run for cover. But consider for a moment what data it is that you’re most concerned about. Is it the vast bulk of your transaction data? All that PO and AP data? Is that of real value to the opportunist or the industrial spy? Not in its raw form, I’ll wager.

What you really should be concerned about is the distillation of that raw data. The business intelligence analysis that becomes the management report. Those internal documents that inform and support your key strategic decisions. You don’t want those falling into the wrong hands, do you? So you’ve heavily invested in data security. You have hack-proof firewalls and biometrically-controlled access to the machine room. But those high-value gems of crystallized data don’t live in the data center…

They are created on the desktop from data extracted from the repository and synthesised as spreadsheets, graphs and slide decks, which are then distributed by email and intranet. The data that we pass between us via email is of far greater sensitivity and far greater value to our competitors than the stuff that we guard in our basement bunkers. Yet while we find it uncomfortable to contemplate storing our procurement data in the cloud, we’re free and easy with what is really important…

Read more from the source @ http://spendmatters.com/2013/06/11/dark-clouds-on-the-horizon-your-data-is-everywhere-whether-you-like-it-or-not/