Cet article de CIO Etats-Unis et Infoworld fait le point sur les risques en terme de sécurité et de conformité réglementaire liés à l'utilisation de la technique dite du « nuage ».

Security standardization has not come to the cloud

There is a huge body of standards, including services like SAS Interaction Management, for example, that apply for IT security and compliance, governing most business interactions that will, over time, have to be translated to the cloud, notes consultant Greenbaum.

But in the meantime, until security models and standards emerge for cloud computing architecture, most of the risk and blame if something goes wrong will fall directly on the shoulders of IT-and not on the cloud computing service providers. "The Salesforce.coms and NetSuites of the world don't offer the kind of governance, risk, and compliance [mechanisms] mandated by regulatory regimes," Greenbaum says.

A best practice guideline for cloud computing

Ultimately, the consumer of the services is responsible for maintaining the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data, agrees Kristin Lovejoy, director of IBM's security, governance, and risk management division.

Lovejoy cites by way of example the fact that the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) makes no specific statements regarding outsourcing or offshoring. Instead, the act's sections 164.308 and 164.314 simply require that a company get assurance from any third parties handling its data that the data will be safeguarded, she notes.

As far as placing limitations on when to deploy the cloud, Lovejoy advises that companies adhere to Geoffrey Moore's consideration of "context versus core." (Moore is a business strategist and managing partner of TCG Advisors.)

Core business practices provide competitive differentiation. Context practices deliver business activities that are typically internal, such as HR services and payroll. Both core and context can be divided into mission-critical applications and non-mission-critical ones. "If a non-mission-critical application goes offline, the company can survive," Lovejoy says.

The rule of thumb Moore comes up with, notes Lovejoy, is this: If the business practice is context and non-mission-critical, then always put it in the cloud. If it is context and mission-critical, it is likely you should make it cloud-enabled. However, if it is core and non-mission-critical, you may want to think about keeping it behind the firewall; if it is core and mission-critical, then definitely keep it behind the firewall, she says.

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