Ensuring successful cloud-based deployments.

• Author: Datskovsky, Galina
• Position: FELLOWS FORUM

There is no doubt about it; the cloud is here to stay. According to Forbes 2015 Tech Roundup, more than 60% of enterprises will have at least half of their infrastructure on cloud-based platforms by 2018. And by 2019, according to "Cisco Global Cloud Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2014-2019," 86% of workloads will be processed by cloud data centers, leaving only 14% to be processed by traditional data centers.

Cloud Basics

Before an organization can wisely select cloud services providers and applications, its information governance (IG) professionals must understand the relevant cloud-related terms.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

SaaS is a standard term used for applications, such as Expensify or Salesforce.com, that operate in the cloud. Organizations can buy the number of seats needed, use the product, and pay for that usage. Google mail is an example of an SaaS product used by millions of people around the world.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

A developer needing a platform on which to write a software product that can later be offered as an SaaS product might turn to a company like Amazon and buy its PaaS. This gives the developer a development area on which to produce products.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

An organization may choose to purchase just infrastructure, such as servers and storage, through a cloud provider and then load its platform and application on top of that. This is IaaS.

Thus, an organization may buy IaaS from provider one, PaaS from provider two, and offer its end users an SaaS product.

This leads to the questions about where the data is stored and, more importantly, who is responsible for it. These questions will be answered in this article.

Cloud Software Deployment

It is worthwhile to note the different ways cloud software can be deployed. As organizations make decisions regarding cloud offerings, it is important to be familiar with the following terms.

Public Cloud

This is essentially like LinkedIn's deployment. Users get free access unless they choose to pay for LinkedIn's premium offering. They share the service with others, so this is generally what the industry calls a multi-tenanted implementation. Users upload the requested personal information they want to and occasionally provide updates. Their data may be comingled with others' data, and they often do not have a choice as to its physical location. They also are not given much choice regarding their terms of service.

Private Cloud

Many organizations do not want their information to be in the public infrastructure, so they require that their cloud...