Analyst firm Ovum says governance of cloud computing is suffering from the same flaws that are affecting other IT governance areas. In a report entitled Cloud governance: An overview, Ovum says a new approach is needed as cloud computing can not thrive without an effective governance framework that promotes and ensures coordination between IT teams.
Cloud computing makes IT governance more difficult by introducing an additional layer of complexity, which businesses need to control in order to make the most of its benefits, says Ovum.
Cloud governance best practices are still in their infancy and the analyst firm believes the focus should, in future, be on enabling flexibility.
Ovum says it does not expect a ‘big bang’ implementation of cloud governance, but a gradual build-up that provides an opportunity to launch and/or reinvigorate other governance efforts.
“Public as well as private clouds’ ability to make it faster and easier to procure, develop, deploy and hardware and software assets will make the biggest difference. Cost and quality of service issues are critical, but cloud computing governance should not over emphasise them at the expense of enabling firms to strike the right balance between effectiveness and innovation”, says Laurent Lachal, Ovum senior analyst and report author.
“Most IT governance efforts are prompted by new regulations or by the need to keep up with uncontrolled SOA software services, virtual machines or public cloud services – whereby governance starts when the public cloud bill is much higher than expected,” says Lachal in a press statement.
“Cloud governance is not just about control and keeping an eye on individuals to make sure that they behave as expected. It should also be about empowerment, based on a realignment of objectives and incentives to encourage behavioural change.”
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