Cloud Computing For Dummies®

Chapter 16. Governing the Cloud

In This Chapter

• Defining governance inside the cloud

• Knowing what governance to expect for your provider

• Knowing the risks of monitoring inside the cloud

• Making cloud governance work

When you move a workload to the cloud, there is a good chance, depending on the kind of workload, that you're no longer responsible for the care and feeding of that workload. You might move email or archived data to a storage cloud, for example. Wait! You turned over control of your assets to the cloud provider, but you're still ultimately responsible for its wellness. In other words, make sure that your assets are managed in a way that meets your business objectives.

This is where governance comes in.

At the end of the day, governance is about making good decisions regarding performance predictability and requiring accountability. This is the case whether you're governing your own data center or thinking about the cloud.

We know there must be a myriad of questions in your head about governing in the cloud: How do I make sure that the other guy is following my rules and policies? When does it matter if he doesn't follow my rules? What's the role of trust in this situation?

An overarching principle behind governance is trust. All parties involved in the cloud — you, the cloud provider, and other service providers — must be able to trust that each party will do what it's supposed to in accordance with established policies and procedures. Think about what would happen without these ...