The scale and automation of cloud computing deliver economies of scale – and price points – that can’t be matched by traditional computing platforms. Managers can minimize capital expenses and align operational costs to business demands with scalable, flexible resource deployments. Those same factors enable innovation through rapid prototyping and testing of complex systems that aren’t feasible – or affordable – with established approaches. It’s little wonder the cloud has emerged as the first choice of infrastructure for many IT managers and practitioners.
Security and compliance play just as critical a role in the hybrid cloud as they do in more conventional environments. So it’s unfortunate that as organizations move operations to the cloud they tend to mirror the protection efforts they employ with their physical, on-premise systems. It’s a mistake because in many cases existing controls don’t migrate well to the cloud. As a result, they fail to provide the requisite protection and diminish – or even eliminate – anticipated cost and operational benefits of cloud computing.