Rakesh Kumar - Cloud Center of Excellence
Cloud governance involves developing strategies, managing risks, implementing policies, and ensuring compliance. It acts as the overarching orchestrator, establishing the guidelines that everyone must adhere to, whether in financial matters, compliance requirements, or as part of your business strategy.
On the other hand, cloud management handles day-to-day tasks such as deploying resources, monitoring performance, and conducting maintenance activities. Its role is to ensure that your use of the cloud aligns with established rules and that these rules contribute to achieving your business objectives.
While governance and management are distinct entities, they function together seamlessly, practically inseparable, and function exceptionally well as a unit. Governance serves as the foundation of a successful cloud strategy, but effective management is equally crucial; without it, your plans may as well be etched in the sand at high tide.
Although cloud governance and cloud management might initially appear interchangeable, recognizing their differences, points of intersection and alignment within your organization is essential. This article delves into the sometimes-challenging relationship between cloud governance and cloud management, offering strategies to maintain harmony and synergy between these processes.
What’s the Difference?
Cloud governance
Cloud governance provides a comprehensive overview of your cloud utilization by monitoring regulatory compliance, operational efficiency, security measures, and associated costs. It encompasses policies and strategies, essentially adhering to the legal framework governing cloud usage. The governance approach involves adopting an organizational perspective on cloud utilization, ensuring alignment with business objectives and requirements.
Cloud management
In contrast, cloud management operates at a more detailed level. It delves into the minutiae of day-to-day operations, such as deploying resources, monitoring performance, and conducting maintenance tasks. The goal is to ensure that teams adhere to the regulations set forth by governance. Given the escalating number of security incidents attributed to misconfigurations, an effective and thorough cloud management strategy has become increasingly crucial.
Working in tandem
The relationship between governance and management is not unilateral; instead, it forms a continuous feedback loop. The two constantly interact and adjust to achieve overarching business objectives. Cloud governance establishes the framework, delineating objectives and preventing conflicts among different cloud processes and requirements. Subsequently, cloud management ensures adherence to these regulations and facilitates the realization of business goals.
Cloud governance and management complement each other, working in tandem. While the concept of implementing them together may seem straightforward, the reality is often more challenging. Like abandoned New Year's resolutions, bringing cloud governance and management together is easier said than done.
The importance of seamless alignment
Calibrating cloud governance and management can feel as challenging as merging lanes in traffic: Everyone aims to move forward smoothly in the same direction, but often, confusion reigns. It's like being stuck in a lane where no one's sure when to proceed. Before you realize, you're caught between obstacles, eagerly waiting for someone to yield and allow the merge. The process becomes filled with friction, bumps, and to put it simply, it's an unpleasant experience.
Effectively utilizing the cloud hinges on the seamless alignment of cloud governance and management to reach your business objectives. However, akin to the challenges faced in a zipper merge, there are instances where the goals and needs of your cloud governance strategy clash with cloud management, resulting in frustration, organizational disruptions, and potential conflicts.
What are the challenges in aligning cloud governance with cloud management?
The overarching goals established by governance can occasionally clash with the daily practicalities faced by cloud management teams. Finding a middle ground between following the rules and maintaining productivity can be challenging.
Cost cutting due to varying priorities
For example, a strategy aimed at cutting expenses related to cloud services might affect how well applications perform in the cloud setup, causing teams to feel hindered.
Varying priorities and viewpoints can make these issues more complicated. For example, when it comes to managing the cloud, ensuring data security might be given more importance by governance due to rules, while management might emphasize operational efficiency and cost-cutting. These differing goals can lead to friction and misunderstandings, making it harder for your organization to fully benefit from its cloud investments.
Meeting regulatory standards
Another possible issue concerns meeting regulatory standards. Maintaining compliance with laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the United States is crucial. This involves creating and enforcing specific rules and methods to protect the security and privacy of cloud-stored data. Yet, ensuring these policies are effectively put into action falls to the responsibility of cloud management teams, who must handle these demanding and risky requirements hands-on.
How to Address These Challenges?
Teleperformance recognizes that effective cloud governance begins with well-defined strategy. By meticulously aligning client’s business objectives with cloud deployments, we tailor governance frameworks to address unique challenges and requirements. This approach ensures a proactive stance on security, compliance, and risk management. We address the misalignment between governance and management by:
- Understanding the connection between cloud governance and cloud management, keeping communication ongoing and open, and finding a middle ground between governance rules and management practicalities are crucial for reducing conflict.
- Involving both governance and management teams in the planning phase can minimize conflicts. Governance needs to set strategic goals and seek input from management to make sure these strategies are realistic and achievable. Simultaneously, management should actively share operational insights to help shape governance policies.
- Drawing inspiration from established industry guidelines, such as those offered by the Cloud Security Alliance or the ISO/IEC 38500 standards, serves as an excellent starting point. These resources offer a comprehensive framework that delineates structures and processes, helping to synchronize IT operations with the overarching strategic objectives of the business.
- Sticking to a plan and encouraging clear communication and making sure that the rules of governance consider and mirror the real-world difficulties faced by the management team and vice versa. According to a study from MIT's Center for Information Systems Research (CISR), companies that have this mutual understanding between governance and management tend to have a profit margin 25% higher than their competitors.
- Establishing clear roles. Picture being on a soccer team where everyone wants to be the goalkeeper. It would be chaotic, wouldn't it? Winning would be quite a challenge in such a situation, even if you manage to make a few extra saves. The concept extends to overseeing and managing cloud systems. It's important for all involved to understand their role, what they're accountable for, and who they're collaborating with. Having a defined guidebook outlining roles and duties facilitates smooth task completion and informed strategic choices.
What are the advantages of proficiently governing and managing the cloud?
A well-coordinated approach to governing and managing the cloud unleashes a wealth of benefits, akin to discovering a treasure trove, yielding the following benefits:
- Enhanced adherence. A strong framework for cloud governance alongside efficient management practices can assist organizations in fulfilling regulatory mandates and industry benchmarks. Aligning governance and management strategies effectively ensures that your organization complies with legal requirements and satisfies auditors!
- Improved effectiveness. A properly synchronized cloud environment operates akin to a finely tuned mechanism, accomplishing tasks more swiftly, with enhanced quality, and reduced inefficiencies. By implementing suitable governance controls and policies, you can enhance resource usage, streamline workflows through automation, and boost scalability.
- Managed costs. Managing costs efficiently is crucial, and a strong governance and management approach can prevent unexpected high bills from cloud usage. By implementing centralized practices, you'll have clearer insights into how the cloud is used, how resources are allocated, and where the money goes.
These advantages demonstrate how having a properly coordinated approach to governing and managing the cloud can greatly increase the benefits gained from your investments in cloud technology.
Developing Expertise in Orchestrating Cloud Strategy
Cloud governance and management are crucial in smoothly guiding your organization's cloud strategy. Governance establishes the rhythm and expectations through rules and compliance standards, while management handles the intricacies of these rules to ensure operational success. Organizations need to grasp the distinct roles of achieving seamless coordination.
The journey toward unity might appear a bit complex at first. However, by embracing comprehension, effective communication, and following established industry norms, you'll gradually become an adept conductor of cloud strategy, much like Leonard Bernstein. Keep learning, critically assess your organization's methods, and fine-tune your strategy to ensure a smooth cloud experience.
Teleperformance provides a holistic and robust approach to cloud security, ensuring clients harness the full potential of cloud technologies without compromising on safety.
Learn more about our security services for the new world here.
Other impactful stories