| |MAY 201919CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN IMPLEMENTING HYBRID CLOUD By Sajith Kumar, CIO, Happiest Minds Technologies loud computing has become one of the most disruptive forces transforming the way business is done. Industry experts highlight various benefits of transition-ing to the Cloud, including improved business efficiency and cost savings. But, one of Gartner's recent Emerging Risks Report and Monitor surveys highlights that a majority of risk execu-tives are most concerned about the probability and im-pact of potential data risks associated with public cloud. Well, there is a boom in cloud migration like never be-fore, and while some organizations that are still skeptical hold on to the traditional way of operations, many have adopted the cloud way (public, private, hybrid or com-munity cloud). Hybrid cloud adoption and implementation is on the fast track in many enterprises. However, this adoption too comes with its own challenges and some of them are described below. Infrastructure security and compliance:Sensitive data such as personally identifiable information (PII), personal health information (PHI), bank-account-related information and other confidential information are increasingly being stored on public cloud infrastruc-ture as well as cloud-based file sharing apps such as Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive. Does IT have sufficient measures in place to ensure only encrypted files are stored on the cloud infrastructure or in the file sharing apps? Does the data loss prevention (DLP) pol-icy cover all file sharing providers as well as other forms of cloud storage? Are all cloud service providers (CSPs) responsible enough to safeguard this data and ensure compliance? Organizations are increasingly becoming concerned about data security, backup data security, data loss, data leakage and data privacy. Complex cloud infrastructure (private, hybrid, public, community)--which is the case in many organizations--and spanning multiple vendors and locations, makes this all the more complex. Partnering with mainstream cloud providers that meet regulatory compliance and have strict access controls may help overcome some of these psychological barriers, but may not be cost-effective. Today, there are hardware vendors too who offer private cloud options that are as cost-effective as mainstream cloud providers.C CIO INSIGHTSSajith has over 23 years of experience in diverse technology and management roles. Sajith has varied experience in the IT field, he has handled multiple roles from supporting IT to developing applications to building large teams to deliver IT initiatives for large enterprise accounts. Prior to joining Happiest Minds, Sajith has worked with MindTree, Microsoft, and Wipro. Sajith Kumar
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