Government Cloud Achilles Heel: The Network

Cloud Migration Part 2: Classify your data

By G C Network | August 30, 2018

In my first post of this series, “Cloud migration part one: An overview,” I provided a high-level summary of how enterprises should migrate applications to the cloud. In this installment,…

Could Budget Sweeps Fix Your Cybersecurity Problem?

By G C Network | July 19, 2018

A recent roundtable discussion in Washington, DC with Federal IT and Cyber leaders focused on the business drivers, challenges and evolving strategies around cybersecurity in government.  After an opening presentation…

Cloud Migration Part 1: An Overview

By G C Network | July 17, 2018

Cloud Migration Part One: An Overview   Business is all about efficiency and effectiveness.  In today’s world, however, those twin goals almost always lead to cloud migration.  This anecdotal observation…

A Personal Technology for Good Redux: Call for Code

By G C Network | July 12, 2018

In 2013 I had the opportunity to manage a $2M demonstration of how cloud computing could be used to support natural disasters. In that NCOIC Geospatial Community Cloud (GCC) demonstration,…

A Path to Hybrid Cloud

By G C Network | May 31, 2018

Cloud computing is now an operational reality across every industry.  Organizations that fail to leverage this economic, operational and technology consumption model are merely consigning themselves to irrelevance.  The rapid…

Human-Led Collaboration with Machines

By G C Network | May 29, 2018

When charged with managing large and complex efforts, an overarching project management task is risk assessment. It involves documenting the current situation, comparing it to the past, and understanding the…

Sensomorphic

By G C Network | May 28, 2018

240 million results are returned in 1.06 seconds (as of May 28, 2018) when you search for cloud computing in a Google search. With that much information available, and that many…

Artificial Intelligence and the Project Manager

By G C Network | May 25, 2018

Organizations use teams to create wealth, market share, customer service, competitive advantage, and organizational success. Effective teams accomplish their assigned end goals by engaging in collaboration as a joint learning…

Building A Collaborative Team

By G C Network | May 18, 2018

Recently, Harvard Business Review cited some insightful research into team behavior at 15 multinational companies. It found that although these teams tended to be large, virtual, diverse, and composed of…

Welcome the New Project Manager!

By G C Network | May 18, 2018

According to CIO.com, the six traits of highly effective project managers are: Be a strategic business partner who can offer higher-level strategic leadership skills, not just technical management skills, provide…

Cloud computing is rewriting the books on information technology (IT) but inter-cloud networking remains a key operational issue. Layering inherently global cloud services on top of a globally fractured networking infrastructure just doesn’t work. Incompatibilities abound and enterprise users are forced to use “duct-tape and baling wire” to keep their global operations limping along. The continuing gulf between IT professionals and business managers only exacerbates this sad state of affairs. IT professionals, however, bear a more significant amount of blame for the current state because we are the ones responsible for providing the operational platform and enabling the new information delivery models that drive modern constituent services and commerce.

The use of cloud has also driven changes in how governments and commercial enterprises approach data security. In the cloud era, organizations can no longer get away with treating all data at some arbitrarily high level of protection.  More than ever, they need to address data protection requirements and controls based on the lifecycle stage of the data. They also need to evaluate the numerous permutations of business function, data user role, location of access, legal or regulatory guidelines and user devices. This is especially important in the public sector where organizations use public funding and operate within a framework of public trust. While this type of analysis could have arguably been seen as overkill when organizations had direct control over the networks they used, taking that view today is tantamount to declaring open season on data for any hacker, identity thief or
ransomware vendor out there. A laissez-faire approach to data categorization and controls is not only full of economic and reputational dangers but it also represents a due diligence failure when it comes to meeting legal and regulatory requirements for protecting sensitive information (e.g. personally identifiable information, medical records, financial data).

In my new article for IEEE Cloud Computing Magazine, I continue addressing this topic by explaining why cloud networking is different and what new cloud networking services are needed. As the cloud computing industry advances into the enterprise space, its success will inevitably depend on our ability to address information consumer perceptions, evolving application requirements, improved management across the application/computing infrastructure/network interfaces and enhanced automated visibility and management of the foundational wide area network. Reading this article will help professionals looking for longevity in this industry to learn and understand how each of these issues affect your organization’s business or mission.

https://www.computer.org/web/computingnow/cloudcomputing

( This content is being syndicated through multiple channels. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of GovCloud Network, GovCloud Network Partners or any other corporation or organization.)

Cloud Musings

( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS – © Copyright Kevin L. Jackson 2015)

Follow me at https://Twitter.com/Kevin_Jackson
Posted in

G C Network