Taming The Cloud
By Kevin Derman
As cloud proliferates, organisations are facing new issues pertaining to BYOD and BYOS.
Luckily for them, cloud brokerages are on the rise as well.
The deal was almost complete, and the finalisation of one
lone document remained. However, this one was a PDF,
and it needed to be edited.
share documents, manage a project etc. in the same timeframe that they expect someone from their IT department
to just acknowledge their request.
“I’m sure there was an edit feature”, you think, as you casually locate the edit button and click on it.
Most individuals are aware of the dangers of sharing confidential company information through non-secure cloud
storage sharing services. However, often need surpasses
logic and people tend to do what they need to do to get
the job done. When this individual leaves the company,
the company loses all control of any stored data in this
ex-employee’s personal account.
Quick as a flash a screen pops up and offers you the ability
to utilise this feature if you purchase an annual subscription
for $20. With a draw quicker than Dirty Harry, your credit
card is out (after all you will make R200k on the deal), a
password login created, and a sign up is done.
Perhaps without you even realising it, another piece of
cloud software has sneaked its way into your organisation.
The advent of cloud has brought some awesome technological advancements. It has allowed SMB companies access
to enterprise-class software. High performance computing
is now available to organisations that never would have had
the budget to buy a single server. Organisations can now
scale their computing needs in an instant, with hybrid cloud
environments that grow at your pace and budget, giving you
the ultimate flexibility. In most instances these cloud environments are also more secure than companies’ regular
on-premise infrastructure.
This sounds like every IT manager’s dream. However at
the same time it has turned every employee into their own
IT manager. No sooner have organisations come to terms
with BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and the management
issues that surround this policy, than the problem morphs
into BYOS (Bring Your Own Software). The problem is not
only at the level of the individual, but also departmental.
Who can find online cloud solutions to run a mail campaign,
So what’s the solution? Most companies respond with the
heavy-hand policy of creating a rule of no external software allowed. With BYOD in force, the likelihood of this
working is extremely small. Another option is to provide
all the software necessary internally. An impossible feat in
today’s fast moving IT environment.
One of the more recent advancements that offers control
back to the enterprise is to utilise a cloud brokerage. A
cloud brokerage allows companies to make available a
choice of public cloud services to departments and individuals within companies. IT Managers or System Administrators can then see at a glance which licenses the company
has over a range of public cloud services. They can add or
delete users, re-allocate licenses when someone leaves
the company and maintain a realistic view of expenditure
across all of these services. The solution is secure in
utilising Single-Sign-On (SSO) technology, and because
all services are consumed through a single brokerage, the
company is presented with one monthly bill.
It seems that it is possible to have your cake and eat it or in this circumstance, consume the cloud and tame it.
“Cloud services will continue to expand within companies, in fact the 2013 PMG Cloud Sprawl Survey
found 38 percent of IT respondents turn to the cloud because it offers faster deployment. Savvy IT
departments are focusing on finding better ways to offer enterprise-grade cloud services to internal
users as a way to stem cloud sprawl and safeguard corporate information.”
Joe LeCompte, principal at PMG
24 | www.firstdistribution.co.za