IT must deal with an increasing number of regulations, many of which come with stiff legal and financial penalties for noncompliance. As cloud computing comes on the scene, it's no wonder that many in IT push back on its use, which in many instances forces you to give up direct control of systems that have to be maintained with these regulations in mind. As one client put it, "Why would I let somebody who does not work here get me arrested?"
But there's another, better way to think about this issue. There is no legal reason why the systems that have to maintain compliance can't exist in the cloud. In fact, it could be better to have some of those systems in the cloud. Unfortunately, many in IT don't see the possibility because of nightmares about a cloud provider's mistake leading to big trouble.
[ In IT today, the action is in the private cloud. InfoWorld's experts take you through what you need to know to do it right in our "Private Cloud Deep Dive" PDF special report. | Also check out our "Cloud Security Deep Dive," our "Cloud Storage Deep Dive," and our "Cloud Services Deep Dive." ]
The trouble with regulations is that they constantly change, and thus need to be managed as if they were a consistently shifting set of users and/or business requirements. This affects how security subsystems function and how information is tracked around the interpretation of government or legal mandates. Therefore, many hundreds of IT shops figure out ways to maintain compliance, perhaps not all resulting in the same solutions -- and that means mistakes, inconsistencies, and wasted effort.
That's where cloud computing provides an opportunity. In many instances, the ability to comply with existing regulations or keep up with changing regulations can be outsourced to a cloud computing provider that can solve these problems for all subscribers. For example, a provider could offer a type of encryption that's now a government mandate or log transactions in specific ways to meet the letter of the law.
It's much cheaper and perhaps safer to use cloud providers for many of the services required of you to maintain compliance in your industry. Such centrally managed compliance based on the same rules is more effective and efficient. There are already some examples of this cloud-based compliance today, such as in industry-specific cloud services for health care, finance, and government.
More of these features should be provided from cloud services precisely because they can be centrally managed. That means better consistency and assurance about your actual compliance -- and less work to get there.
This article, "The case for compliance as a cloud service," originally appeared at InfoWorld.com. Read more of David Linthicum's Cloud Computing blog and track the latest developments in cloud computing at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.