Well-functioning organizations have developed structures to balance requirements for revenue creation, cost containment, and risk management to deliver predictable profit and growth. Within most organizations, the IT department is often charged with many of the cost-reduction initiatives, legal, audit, security, and compliance departments are charged with risk reduction, and the line-of-business is charged with driving increased value and revenue.
The development and evolution of private- and public-cloud services promise decreased costs for the IT department through super-consolidation and the efficiency of shared infrastructure services. Business units see cloud-based services enabling increased revenue and value, not only by offering a more scalable and flexible infrastructure but also by leveraging the combined data of the organization and the knowledge gleaned from other users of the cloud.
Those charged with risk management will be appropriately concerned about data privacy, data security, data loss, and legal and regulatory compliance for both public and private clouds. That said, companies that fail to embrace private and public cloud approaches run the risk of revenue stagnation and high costs, which promises certain, if slow, death.
Cloud metadata is the key to satisfying the concerns of risk managers, while enabling IT and revenue-producing business units to fully embrace and exploit these new service-delivery models. Such a model of cloud metadata is detailed in a document created by Tom Coughlin and Mike Alvarado entitled "Angels in our Midst: Associative Metadata in Cloud Storage."
For risk managers concerned about placing data in a shared infrastructure, the "Basic Data Levels" of metadata, described in the first four layers of the model, can be used to control access, determine which files and data should be encrypted, and control where data is allowed to move and be shared both within and outside the walls of the corporation. For risk managers concerned about compliance with security and privacy laws, the "Meaning Levels" of metadata, described in the top three layers of the model, can enable the analysis of customers and their relationships while ensuring that customer-unique identifying information is protected.
Organizations need to consider all three dimensions: revenue and value creation, cost control, and risk management. Organizations will have differing views of the appropriate balance among revenue, cost, and risk, depending upon their industry, company history, financial position, and extent of regulatory oversight, but all three constituencies must have a seat at the table. It’s always easy to kill something by saying it’s too risky. The inherent risk, however, lies in not finding ways to say ‘yes’ and being left behind.
Action Item: With the increased availability of private- and public-cloud infrastructure and applications, organizations should bring together the key stakeholders for revenue growth, cost containment, and risk management. The priority of the stakeholders should be to establish and leverage a new hierarchy of metadata to enable organizations to manage risk while exploiting the cost benefits and value creation of cloud-based infrastructure.
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