Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 06 | Page 43

////////////////////////// AVOIDING THE PUBLIC CLOUD IS OFTEN AN ATTEMPT BY ORGANISATIONS TO FEEL IN CONTROL OF THEIR DATA. incorporating these into a wider cloud strategy including public cloud. Avoiding the public cloud is often an attempt by organisations to feel in control of their data; by keeping it in private clouds or on-premises, they feel a natural security in knowing where their data is at any one time. With regulations like GDPR coming into force, it is only natural that organisations will continue to use these solutions to maintain autonomy of their data. However, avoiding the public cloud entirely in the interests of maintaining control of your data is, at best, short-sighted and at worst, detrimental for enterprises. As public cloud providers increase their data centre footprint, with local data centres in each region, businesses can increasingly still keep their data close to home. At the same time, with the many challenges that GDPR brings in terms of changing the attitudes to personal data within an organisation, public clouds could actually alleviate some of the challenges. As businesses look to win over customer trust with responsible data usage, Forrester predicts that, “boards and investors will increasingly demand trustworthiness metrics in performance reporting,” which will require increased oversight of a business’s data landscape. With a respectable public cloud provider and the correct public cloud monitoring tools, businesses using the public cloud are able to demonstrate that they are keeping their customer data safe by showing exactly where it is and what is happening to it. INTELLIGENTCIO 43