The cloud is an extremely beneficial solution for many organizations, transitioning applications and business systems off company premises and into external data centres. However, many companies execute a cloud strategy without truly understanding where information is located, who has access to it and how it is protected. Managing risks and compliance effectively in the cloud requires new skill sets along with a different approach than traditional risk management processes.
Organizations often perform due diligence when choosing a cloud provider, but cloud services and solutions evolve quickly, and risk practices must keep pace. Companies must have a proper governance, risk and compliance framework to ensure they’re taking advantage of the cloud’s efficiency, agility and enhanced solutions—all while incurring minimal risk.
The cloud is unlike any other technology solution and demands a broader perspective and input from multiple key stakeholders to properly manage risks and applicable compliance obligations. Some key considerations include:
- Who owns the risks of moving to the cloud in your organization? Is it information technology, information security or vendor management?
- Who accepts the business risk of moving to the cloud? Is it the specific business line or the entire enterprise?
- Do you treat all cloud solutions the same way? All three cloud architectures—software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS)—carry distinct risks.
RSM has developed an effective solution to evaluate your cloud policies, procedures and controls. We will work with you to develop comprehensive cloud governance policies, empowering your organization to identify, evaluate and minimize your risk when moving IT workloads to the cloud. Utilizing the Cloud Security Alliance Cloud Control Matrix v3 (CCM), our team has developed a flexible cloud risk framework that applies to several compliance standards. Expanding on the CCM framework, RSM has integrated dozens of requirements from regulatory and statutory bodies with additional guidelines integrated as they are released. Instead of undergoing multiple assessments to evaluate your company’s cloud compliance and performance, our framework can assess your environment in a single audit exercise.
RSM cloud risk and compliance advisors bring a unique and comprehensive perspective to managing and addressing your cloud risks. Our matrix team leverages extensive national risk management, cybersecurity and technology resources, providing deep regulatory compliance and technical support throughout your cloud journey, from taxonomy and controls to ongoing governance. We understand how you want to use cloud technology and develop effective strategies to help you put those plans into action.
In addition, our modular approach to compliance allows your organization to utilize a single framework while applying mappings to a variety of statutory, regulatory or compliance bodies. This strategy simplifies future audits, but also provides a holistic view of risk across a wide variety of standards. Our framework not only considers domestic standards, but also a host of international guidelines for companies doing business overseas.
