“On your mark … Get set … CLOUD!” (Part 2)

A Commentary and Essay by Ron Knode

My last post introduced the notion that preparation for enterprise cloud processing is comparable to the commands, “On your mark” and “Get set,” that precede the beginning of a race. Until the “GO,” there’s no progress toward the finish line – the payoff. I outlined some security misconceptions that often (unnecessarily) delay the “GO” command, and I offered evidence that we have now succeeded well enough with the “on your mark” and “get set” preparations for cloud security. We have completed our cloud payoff training, and it’s now time to “CLOUD.” It’s time to start the race in the cloud for real enterprise payoffs.

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Congress, held November 16-17 in Orlando, delivered yet another strong regimen for cloud payoff training in a global context, with both commercial and governmental concentrations. The Congress focused on the substantial progress and results that had been achieved in just a few short years.

Practical examples of cloud victories (payoffs captured) illustrated complete cloud security preparation and execution workouts that others could follow without designing their own from scratch. Full instructional programs for the CSA GRC stack were available to the attendees, and sessions highlighted the wide variety of services, architectures and products that delivered the security and trustworthy cloud processing to support real enterprise payoffs. Major cloud providers announced their support for substantial portions of the GRC stack and the public STAR registry. (See previous post for acronym definitions.) That’s one more important milestone in cloud payoff training.

Future Vision

But beyond the payoff victories already achieved, the CSA Congress also included future vision sessions that stretched our thinking about what kind of valuable (secure) services were possible in cloud delivery – with the right kind of cloud payoff training. I participated in a secure cloud B2B panel discussion that covered all aspects of the enterprise supply chain, from finance to HR to billing and payments. These are functions at the very business heart of the enterprise. Only the most well trained cloud services can support these. But the cloud payoff training has already been done, and we are ready to compete for payoffs once the cloud service starter’s pistol is fired.

So, where are you in your cloud payoff training? A lot of hard work has already been done, and we are the (competitive) beneficiaries. We have learned that the value equation in the cloud requires us to combine security with transparency. So, we have changed our cloud payoff training program to succeed with this extended value equation. It is now time to GO! It is now time to CLOUD! The starter has already announced “On your mark …” and “Get set …” When the gun goes off, will you be ready and fully trained to CLOUD? Or will you stumble over the hurdle of cloud security? The cloud payoff training is ready. Are you?

On your mark …

Get set …

CLOUD!