As more and more enterprises move to the cloud, cloud compliance becomes a key tenet for operations.

1. Cloud Compliance Looms Large for Global Enterprises
As more and more enterprises move to the cloud, cloud compliance becomes a key tenet
for operations. It’s important that data transfers within the cloud are conducted by
complying with local and foreign regulations when working with 3rd party services.
According to Freebridge Associates research analyst Christine Zhang, “Cloud compliance
is not a paltry issue to be ignored by enterprises. More and more countries and
implementing their own Cloud Compliance regulations, and their penalties encompass
substantial fines and if warranted, imprisonment as well”.
Furthermore, It’s important that enterprises first become totally cognizant of which cloud
services are being used within their company by their employees. After discovering those
services, enterprises should examine the data, which is being transferred by those services.
Then onwards, it’s important to know if that data is being transferred in a secure manner.
This is especially important for cloud compliance reasons, as highly sensitive data
transfers must be done so in appropriate fashion. When sensitive data is transferred with
the cloud, its important that companies have access to data being transferred, to prevent
leaks and breaches.
Furthermore, if one is leveraging external cloud service providers, its important to
examine which regulations the providers abide by. Also, when using external cloud
service providers, its important to know what type of data should reside on their cloud
services, how they’re going to protect it, how they’re going to back it up and how you
may reserve the right to audit the security and compliance framework that they build
around your data.
Furthermore, things can go awry at times. Thus, its important to create an incident
response plan for cloud security episodes. According to a recent Gartner report more than
fifty percent of Global 1000 companies will have confidential customer information
stored in the public Cloud by the end of 2016”. Thus, when transferring confidential data
in the cloud, enterprises should be cognizant whether the data contains private
information that can be traced to the identity of the person. If so, appropriate protection
measures must be in place.

2. This is important because many federal governments have already implemented or are
soon to implement policies regarding the traceability of personal information to a specific
identity. Furthermore, there are many penalties for organizations that fail to protect this
sensitive information. Consequently, its important that enterprises prioritize data privacy
in terms of both Cloud Compliance and also as a threat to the enterprise, so they can
prevent federal penalties and data breaches that can lead to brand marring and other
financial detriments. Ultimately, its more beneficial if organizations start cloud
compliance procedures now. Else, they will have to face the penalties, which include
fines and/or imprisonment in most countries.
In summary, it’s important that chief information officers and information technology
teams work to comply with all data privacy and security regulations present in countries
their data is processed or transferred to. Furthermore, due diligence on cloud providers is
a must. By undergoing these procedures, enterprises can leverage the positives of the
cloud while curtailing any risks and threats to their business.