Outsourcing in Public Cloud : Strategies for Proper Execution

Outsourcing in Public Cloud demands strategies for proper execution in to reality. It starts with the Planning Phase and ends with a controlled termination of Cloud Services. Any company or individual which uses the services of a public cloud provider should first think about a strategy for outsourcing.

Outsourcing in Public Cloud : Strategies That Works

In the path for outsourcing in Public Cloud, an outsourcing project should be created and in the whole strategy will be to integrate the company or brand. This includes aspects such as general targets, establishing the sources of outsourcing – management and organizational structures with defined responsibilities, the definition of acceptable risk and development of fallback strategies.

Outsourcing in Public Cloud : Strategies for Proper Execution

Outsourcing in Public Cloud actually ideally should be guarded by at least a person who is assisted by another person who has at least a Masters’ on Business Administration. But it can be costly for an individual or a small start ups. The things can never be generalized, still; there are points in particular those must be addressed, that also includes which parts should not be outsourced to a public cloud (due to legal requirements, to high risks or for other reasons). Next the outsourcing management is be integrated into the management system of the company. As a further minimum requirement; security concepts, SLAs and contracts must be realized with defined, measurable benefits. Is essential to implement an outsourcing process.

First : Planning Phase

First, different alternatives are there for cloud computing to develop gross and a first security analysis. Distinguishing features of the alternatives including the locations of the data centers, ways to limit the public cloud for specific regions, control the options for data flow and the offered service level (Software as a Service, Platform as a Service or Infrastructure as a Service).

The alternatives for outsourcing in the public cloud is a safety and is subjected to risk analysis. In addition, determining which legal (especially data security) and organizational requirements for the various alternatives should be considered. For all these information, the word “safety requirements” is derived. After that decision is made, what alternatives are on the short list, has to be considered. A list of these alternatives may be created, which describes the swapping process and all service requirements. The offers of the providers can be evaluated on the basis of this one. In particular, deficits of providers can be identified that previously could not yet be included in the safety analysis. In addition, a due diligence examination of the provider must be carried out. Then a decision is is made for an alternative and for a provider.

Second : Contract phase

The aim is to create a service level agreements (SLA) with a complete and verifiable specifications to ensure the quality and information of security in the public cloud. Particular attention when drafting this, includes Granting of audit rights, definition of interface, Arrangements for the termination of cloud services etc.

Third : Migration

After signing the contract, the migration phase starts, i.e. the gradual and planned outsourcing of the functions. The plan includes the creation of security policies, which includes both migratory as well as the operational termination for the swap. As a basis for their creation are the results of the risk analysis and the selection process of the planning stage. The implementation and testing of the outsourcing to the cloud must be in accordance with established security policies.

Forth : Operational phase

During the operational phase of the outsourced resources, the functions are operated under contract by the provider and security concepts. Is now essential to implement a functioning security monitoring in order to detect deviations from the required level of safety quickly. The security monitoring also serves to demonstrate the performance of the contracted services, and checking the continuous improvement.

Fifth : Termination

Fifth is the Termination phase. It is a variable stage. In this step, a controlled termination of the cloud services is performed. The termination must be done in accordance with the contractual provisions. The provider must, in particular delete the data. This includes not only data of the business process, but also operational data such as log data from the systems and applications.