The ups and downs of cloud compliance

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Mike Chapelle.

Compliance doesn’t need to slow down cloud adoption, but it should remain a high priority in cloud-enabled IT environments. Federal and state laws that protect information security and data privacy differ widely and are becoming increasingly complex. The global picture is even more difficult to unravel.

As enterprises around the world adopt cloud computing strategies, regulated data — such as personally identifiable information, health records and credit card numbers — increasingly passes through the control of a wide range of service providers. Multinational corporations must take time to understand the data security ramifications of cloud computing decisions and move forward in a manner that maintains compliance with applicable security and privacy regulations…

In all of these scenarios, figuring out which regulations apply to your business operations can be time consuming and frustratingly complex. Remember: Your organization is ultimately responsible (liable) for protecting sensitive data that it’s been entrusted with and ensuring compliance requirements are met, no matter where that data is stored, transmitted or accessed. As assets are moved to the cloud, you must take steps to ensure compliance obligations are upheld by third-party service providers and vendors…

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