Cloud (Cost + Trust)

Cloud providers benefit statement boils down to only two variables that matters to you -

COST + TRUST

You may look at this and agree, say this seems obvious. Then again you might consider this model too simple and wonder what about flexibility, elasticity, feature/function and other cloud benefits that influence moving to the cloud.

These are all important, but in my humble opinion, cost and trust are the most important two lynch pins for selecting a cloud provider, and you need to expect service providers to provide both effectively, be willing to provide both with equal fervor, and honestly disclose their position. 

COST
Moving to the cloud proposes the single best opportunity to reduce overall IT and operational costs. Today all organizations, from your gardener, hair stylist, and even big organizations like Nordstrom, Exxon, Starbucks, and even all the three letter government agencies are faced with the stark reality that cloud computing will reduce cost of their operations. This is the big leaver that cloud providers use to draw in customers. Lower the cost, increase your market dominance. But cost alone should not be enough to make such an important decision.

TRUST
 How to pick a provider to service an organizations need? Do you just run out and get services from Google, Microsoft, or Amazon? Are these providers the most trustworthy? The complexity to pick a provider that is best for you should not be a flip of a coin. But how can trust be measured?

Finding the right provider

I'm a huge advocate of an unbiased, and neutral third party providing us the ability to find the best cloud provider partner. Today Compliance is used by providers to provide evidence of trust, but this can be a complex and sometimes difficult to validate… for instance ask your provider for a copy of their latest SOC2 report? My guess is it will be hard to possibly impossible to get the full report….

So what can you do before you buy?
As a result I think a not for profit like the Cloud Security Alliance's is needed to fill the gap and provide the intelligence needed to understand an organizations trustworthiness.
Good news is that he CSA has been maintaining an open set of compliance reports in their STAR program, or Security, Trust and Assurance Registry program. 

This registry is currently the only single public repository of cloud providers outlining how cloud providers view themselves as it comes to trust. Many big providers such as Microsoft, Amazon, Box, HP, as well as smaller specialty cloud solutions such  Everbridge and PODfather ltd. Are currently listed on the STAR.


What the STAR provide is the ability to review (at your leisure) how the providers stack up amongst each other. Also provides an opportunity to validate that 'sales' guys statement about the cloud solution promises…. Before you buy, I'd recommend you make sure that validate that you can truly trust your cloud provider?

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