Why You Need a Cloud Governance Solution Now

Is your organization dipping its toes into the cloud for the first time, or is it fully immersed? Whatever the case, you’ve probably encountered the words “cloud governance.” But what do they mean, and why should they even matter? Today we’re going to discuss why a cloud governance solution is not a “good-to-have” but a “must-have” feature.

Cloud governance refers to the implementation and development of controls meant to manage compliance, security, budget, and access in the cloud. Sound familiar? At first glance, cloud governance may sound a lot like IT governance, just cloud-based. It’s not, however.

You see, traditional IT governance has a lot of bottlenecks for users. Sometimes, a simple request has to pass through several levels of approvals by admins and managers. This isn’t the case with the cloud. The cloud is decentralized, and it’s all about speed, agility, and cost savings.

Automation is the key difference between IT governance and cloud governance. In the cloud, users have streamlined access to resources with approval workflows built in. And there are established rules for verifying, establishing, and enforcing policy and budget compliance.

Sounds complicated? It isn’t. Here are some reasons why you need cloud governance today.

Reasons for Implementing a Cloud Governance Solution

Helps Curb Shadow IT

Cloud spend and risk increase a great deal when you don’t know what systems are in use and where your data resides. Often, employees turn to shadow IT when they feel stymied whenever they try to access resources to do their jobs. However, 33% of security attacks will be on shadow IT resources by 2020.

With cloud governance, you set up the required framework for team members to access cloud resources within budgetary and compliance constraints. This helps to reduce employee frustration and the possibility of team members using their cloud accounts to do their jobs. Organizations can also setup approval workflows in place to put a curb on it.

Cloud Resource Management Becomes Easier

Cloud providers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), are at the forefront of the drive to encourage customers to move their multiple tenant workloads. These workloads often reside in a single cloud account and should have their own distinct account. The use of multiple accounts to manage distinct workloads is best-practiced if you want to:

• Deliver precise cost management and access control.
• Limit exposure to security and financial risks in the event of a disaster.
• Limitations depending on geography

Putting in place a robust cloud governance strategy can help your organization to manage the volume of accounts it needs. It will also give IT visibility into key cloud trends and activities.

Reduction of Risk

There are risks associated with operating in the cloud. They include noncompliance with regulations and policies, exposed data, and cost overruns. When you put a solution for cloud governance in place, your organization can:

• Implement controls and privacy for S3 buckets.
• Be compliant with regulations, such as FedRAMP and HIPAA.
• Enforce cloud spend controls.

Reduction of Labor

Having your team use spreadsheets and other manual processes to keep track of costs, compliance, and accounts can be labor-intensive. With a cloud governance solution, you can set guardrails to control budget, access, and policy for each project. Also, you get enforcement actions, so you don’t have to do unnecessary follow-up actions after receiving an alert.

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