If your IT Managers are losing sleep over the widespread use of a wide variety of unsanctioned cloud services, then you are facing the inevitable Cloud Sprawl situation.
Any enterprise currently uses the Cloud in some capacity for its corporate use. The cloud solutions and services offer accessibility, security, availability, and productivity, that makes it the ideal platform.
The flipside of this innovation is that they are losing control over their data assets. Unrestricted and uncontrolled access, can compromise on the integrity and security of their corporate data. Using unauthorized cloud services can lead to business inefficiencies in the long run.
What is Cloud Sprawl
Cloud sprawl can basically be defined as the uncontrolled usage of an organization’s cloud resources. It could be availing of cloud services or even providing them. It is largely due to the organizations losing control over its cloud computing resources.
Cloud Sprawl usually occurs when the organizations:
- Fail to monitor and manage its cloud instances.
- Different departments within the same organization may use similar services from different SaaS providers to accomplish the same tasks.
- Growing maturity of the cloud providers and their services offered.
The problem with Cloud Sprawl
It is found that the productivity, costs, and data management can become problematic when Cloud sprawl goes unchecked.
Cloud sprawl can contribute to inconsistent and unorganized data throughout a business if different departments are utilizing different cloud or SaaS services to perform the same actions. Data might have been updated within one platform but not another, which can create considerable confusion and loss of productivity.
IT department and cloud managers face extra load when authorizing, managing, and supervising the apps and services which is used across your business.
Plus, the costs incurred when you pay for cloud SaaS and public cloud services on a monthly/ subscription basis and if you are not utilizing them effectively.
How to curb Cloud Sprawl
The bottom line of the cloud sprawl trend: It’s inevitable. The only way to manage it, is to communicate the importance of Cloud Sprawl and how it affects your business.
- Develop and communicate user-oriented cloud strategies for their use of cloud solutions.
- Discuss and define the cloud strategy among the stakeholders – involves investors, employees and managers in formulating cloud strategies.
- Ensure right administrative tools are in place for proper cloud services management.
- Do cloud audit on a regular basis to weed out unauthorized cloud solutions and curb cloud sprawl.
- Create cloud migration roadmap to let everybody know about what’s going on in the cloud.
- Provide the suitable cloud solution quickly, on a need-to-use basis for the employees.
- Implement a proper BYOD security policy, to protect your company data.
The bottom line is that persuading and educating your employees will help in managing cloud sprawl. The Internet and cloud has made it possible for organizations to function quickly and efficiently with instant and accurate access to data.
If you or your team don’t have the required expertise to curb the Cloud Sprawl, then Sysfore can get the job done through our Cloud experts.
Drop a mail to info@sysfore.com or call us at +91-80-4110-5555, and we will get back to you.