Governance in the Cloud

Lonnie Elwood, Sr. Client Success Manager – Cloud/Hosting

When it comes to moving to the Cloud, firms have a lot to consider.  We have discussed many of these items in previous articles, and depending on the industry, these firms will have different requirements for compliance and IT governance. 

A firm may have well established policies and procedures regarding compliance, or they may take a cloud migration effort as an opportunity to put these in place.  Whether the choice is a private cloud, public cloud or hybrid, the capabilities of the platform will need to be reviewed.  Does the platform meet HIPPA, PCI DSS and SSAE 16 requirements if necessary?  If they don’t meet these standards, does the platform allow you the latitude to implement them yourself?  Data sovereignty rules should be considered as well, since many countries have passed laws regarding control and storage of data.  Keep in mind that not only the firm’s requirements need to be considered, but also the requirements of the firm’s customers.

IT governance is focused on aligning IT strategy with business objectives.  This provides a framework for organizations to leverage for best practices and controls.  Many Cloud and managed service providers have these programs in place and you can integrate yours or choose to adopt theirs with extensions into your support organization depending on what level of IaaS, PaaS or SaaS you are migrating to.  One popular example of a governance program is ITIL.  ITIL (a former acronym for Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is based on 5 sets of management best practices for service strategy, design, transition or change management, operation and continual service improvement.  These best practices are not organization or technology specific, but allow for a baseline to plan, implement and measure against.

The journey can sometimes seem daunting, but if you have any other questions about the Cloud or are looking for assistance with your migration project, GSI is here to help you. At GSI we take pride in the fact that our teammates and consultants have extensive technical and business experience that can help your organization.  We have a Cloud Value Assessment offering that provides you with a Cloud Migration Strategy/Roadmap that is in complete alignment with your business goals.  Email us at cloudexperts@getgsi.com to start the conversation.

To learn more GSI's Cloud services and solutions, visit https://www.getgsi.com/jd-edwards/cloud-services/ or email us at cloudexperts@getgsi.com.