Taking a walk in the cloud?

AuthorWiler, Vicki
PositionINFOCUS: A Message from the Editor

To ensure that records and information management (RIM) and information governance (IG) requirements are met, RIM and IG professionals must be involved in their organization's cloud services assessment and procurement processes. This will become even more critical in the next few years, as several studies show that organizational use of the cloud is increasing rapidly:

* The Forbes 2015 Tech Roundup projects that more than 60% of enterprises will have at least half of their infrastructure on cloud-based platforms by 2018.

* The "Cisco Global Cloud Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2014-2019" expects that 86% of workloads will be processed by cloud data centers by 2019.

* Technology research group Technavio predicts that the global market for cloud-based IG solutions will expand at a compounded annual growth rate of more than 27%--from $1.92 billion last year to $6.25 billion-by 2020, according to its report "Global Cloud-Based Information Governance Market 2016-2020."

Technavio attributes the growth in part to issues RIM and IG professionals are very concerned about: "the need to manage information assets and ensure compliance to minimize the risk of litigation and data loss" and the "tightening of regulations" of various countries around data protection.

Although the cloud does offer some advantages related to these issues, it also comes with many risks that RIM and IG professionals must be aware of and work to prevent or mitigate well before a cloud service or tool is procured. Patrick Cunningham, CISM, FAI, describes both in the cover article, "Another Walk in the Cloud." In this update to the 2009 Britt Literary Award-winning Information Management article he co-wrote with Jesse Wilkins, "A Walk in the Cloud," Cunningham also gives three real-life examples of detecting and mitigating cloud-based risks; these provide new insights into how organizations are using the cloud and what this means...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT