Cloud Choices

Recognizing the value of data and treading carefully with that value is a principle advocated here just a couple weeks ago.
 
The corollary to that concern is the financial industry’s ongoing efforts to figure out the best ways to make use of cloud computing resources, as recently explored in a survey by the consultancy Aite Group.
 
Markets such as Switzerland certainly appreciate the sensitivity of client data because of their strict privacy requirements, as Aite Group senior analyst Virginie O’Shea notes in this story. So storing data in the cloud in a market such as Switzerland is a harder sell. Even where the regulatory environment is more permissive, it is advisable to mitigate operational risk to ensure data remains available for auditing, and to meet transparency demands.
 
Firms, and particularly the vendors who serve them, are collecting or finding ways to collect more types of data and generate more volumes of analysis. The importance of protecting that data was stressed in that prior opinion column. Security, in terms of protecting private information, is even more of a concern with cloud resources, as the respondents to Aite’s survey made clear.
 
It’s the technology transformations involved in going to cloud resources, however, that has those responsible for data more concerned. You can’t protect and secure data if it is lost or corrupted due to faulty systems, or a lack of operational risk mitigation.
 
Of course, there is a choice between public and private cloud resources. So far, the industry is tending to favor private clouds, according to Aite Group’s observations, but some public cloud resources are being used. While private cloud computing is more secure and can be dedicated full-time to an organization’s specific needs, public cloud resources are less costly, which is also a good attribute when resources and budgets are a concern.
 
So, keeping the value of data in mind when making choices about how to manage it and work with it, one has to be careful of making the penny-wise choice that could prove foolish if it allows security breaches, analytical errors or additional operational risk.