Question

Describe ONE benefit of using cloud computing, also describe ONE risk associated with the use of cloud computing and explain how to mitigate the risk.

Answer 1

BENEFITS OF USING CLOUD COMPUTING

1. Less Costs
The services are free from capital expenditure. There are no huge costs of hardware in cloud computing. You just have to pay as you operate it and enjoy the model based on your subscription plan.

2. 24 X 7 Availability
Most of the cloud providers are truly reliable in offering their services, with most of them maintaining an uptime of 99.9%. The workers can get onto the applications needed basically from anywhere. Some of the applications even function off-line.

3. Flexibility in Capacity
It offers flexible facility which could be turned off, up or down as per the circumstances of the user. For instance, a promotion of sales is very popular, capacity can be immediately and quickly added to it for the avoidance of losing sales and crashing servers. When those sales are done, the capacity can also be shrunk for the reduction of costs.

4. All over Functioning
Cloud computing offers yet another advantage of working from anywhere across the globe, as long as you have an internet connection. Even while using the critical cloud services that offer mobile apps, there is no limitation of the device used.

5. Automated Updates on Software
In cloud computing, the server suppliers regularly update your software including the updates on security, so that you do not need to agonize on wasting your crucial time on maintaining the system. You find extra time to focus on the important things like ‘How to grow your businesses.

6. Security
Cloud computing offers great security when any sensitive data has been lost. As the data is stored in the system, it can be easily accessed even if something happens to your computer. You can even remotely wipe out data from the lost machines for avoiding it getting in the wrong hands.

7. Carbon Footprint
Cloud computing is helping out organizations to reduce their carbon footprint. Organizations utilize only the amount of resources they need, which helps them to avoid any over-provisioning. Hence, no waste of resources and thus energy.

8. Enhanced Collaboration
Cloud applications enhance collaboration by authorizing diverse groups of people virtually meet and exchange information with the help of shared storage. Such capability helps in improving the customer service and product development and also reducing the marketing time.

9. Control on the Documents
Before cloud came into being, workers needed to send files in and out as the email attachments for being worked on by a single user at one time ultimately ending up with a mess of contrary titles, formats, and file content. Moving to cloud computing has facilitated central file storage.

10. Easily Manageable
Cloud computing offers simplified and enhanced IT maintenance and management capacities by agreements backed by SLA, central resource administration and managed infrastructure. You get to enjoy a basic user interface without any requirement for installation. Plus you are assured guaranteed and timely management, maintenance, and delivery of the IT services.

RISKS INVOLVED  

• Data Confidentiality – When your IT environment is in a hosted cloud environment, how do you ensure the confidentiality of sensitive information?
• Compliance-related issues, including 3rd party compliance-related requests – Is a cloud service provider compliant with applicable regulations for your business? If necessary, are they able to provide attestation of compliance? In terms of the May 2018 enacted GDPR, this blog post explores the responsibilities of a managed service provider.
• Data Residency – In what geographic location(s) will your data be hosted? What are the legal and regulatory obligations implied by these locations?
• Auditability – When a data integrity audit is necessary, how accessible is cloud-hosted data? How is data auditability addressed in the cloud SLA?
• Data breach – What safeguards and processes does the cloud provider have in place to ensure the security and privacy of hosted data?

Strategies to Mitigate Cloud Risk

1. Data Encryption at Rest: Encryption at rest protects data that is not in use or in transit. As data at rest is typically protected by firewalls and monitoring, it can be tempting to believe that is secure without encryption. However, if the password of an authorized user is compromised, the privacy of this data is no longer secure. When sensitive data is moved to a third-party cloud provider, the risk of unauthorized access increases. Data encryption at rest minimizes this risk by ensuring data security even if unauthorized access via stolen credentials occurs. Additionally, data encryption at rest is important to maintain compliance with government and industry mandates such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, and SOX. To mitigate risk and support compliance mandates, both Data Encryption at Rest and Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) are baked into Expedient’s newest multi-cloud solution, Expedient Enterprise Cloud.
2. Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): By combining a password with a second authentication component such as a one-time password generated by a personal PIN, IT executives can add an important extra layer of security to their cloud hosted environments. Not only is two-factor authenticationmuch more secure than just relying on username/password combinations, it is also supports ease-of-use from an end user perspective. Like data encryption at rest, 2FA also nicely complements industry and government compliance mandates.
3. Eliminate Shared Accounts: As with other web-based services, sharing cloud platform credentials with coworkers is common practice. While most professionals don’t think twice about employing a shared account model with services that require multiple cooks in the kitchen, it can be a recipe for cloud disaster. Even if it’s more convenient/cost-effective than requiring a unique account for each user, sharing cloud accounts injects unnecessary risk into cloud operations. To maintain accountability and preserve data auditability and integrity, cloud services accounts should not be shared between users for any reason.
4. Insist on a well-defined shared responsibility model: Whether it’s for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), or Software as a Service (SaaS), a well-defined and reciprocal shared responsibility agreement with each cloud services provider is critical to mitigating the risks associated with cloud-hosted services. Additionally, ensure that everyone on your staff (whether they are full-time employees or consultants) is crystal clear about the various shared responsibility models in use by your various cloud providers. As the complexity of enterprise cloud environments continue to increase, implementing the methods outlined above will continue to increase in importance to mitigate the inherent risk associated with the cloud.
5. Use Standardized Cloud Assessment Questions: In addition, having a set of up-to-date cloud provider assessment questions that are representative of your organization’s cybersecurity and compliance goals is important as well. With cloud services coming in all shapes and sizes, asking a standardized set of questions to each potential vendor will help you establish a comparison baseline to understand which cloud provider/service will be best for your business’s needs