Is your organization using a cloud computing service for risk management?

The term „the Cloud“ is now used on a daily basis (many say the term is overused today) and everyone knows this is the next big thing in IT. What is cloud computing? The technical term cloud computing can take many forms and refer to many similar, yet different aspects of computing data outside the confines of the office.

Here are a few examples of cloud computing:

SaaS – Software as a Service: a single application accessed through a web browser by thousands of customers using a multitenant architecture.

Web services in the cloud: similar to SaaS, Web service providers offer APIs that enable developers to exploit functionality over the internet, rather than delivering full-blown applications. The range includes discrete business services to credit card processing services.

PaaS – Platform as a Service: delivers development environments as a service, allowing you to build your own applications that run on the provider‘s infrastructure and delivered to your users via the internet from the provider‘s servers.

IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service: an older form of cloud computing that has had a revival through on demand storage and virtual servers through datacenters. IaaS providers offer services primarily used for supplemental IT needs such as virtual-machines, firewalls, IP addresses, virtual local area networks (VLANs) and software bundles.

The previous examples of cloud computing can all be utilized for software applications. What do you think about a cloud solution for your risk management strategy? Are you using some sort of cloud based service provider for your risk management? What type of cloud computing service is the best and most secure?

The risk management industry has a wide variety of solutions available from the basic spreadsheet solution to the massive GRC solutions. The range also includes the local desktop to the client-server application to the cloud solutions available. The cost of the product is often a major determining factor for most small to medium organizations. With the onset of more and more cloud solutions available the cost has become very affordable. The questions remains, do you feel safe with your data stored externally in a cloud computing solution?

Risk Management Studio is a desktop solution today, but we are considering adopting our platform to include a cloud computing solution. We want to reach out to this diverse community in hopes to garner some professional opinions and expertise. Your opinions and feedback are appreciated and all relevant information will be considered in determining the next phase of our development. Thank you in advance for your input – email us info@riskmanagementstudio.com.