Achieving Proactive Cloud Governance with Google Cloud Platform
Written by Priya George
Content WriterCloud governance cannot be understated in its role and value. After all, it is one of the critical roles cloud service partners play. A cloud governance framework is essential for controlling the cloud environment and helping it meet business needs, strategies, and objectives. Therefore, it is a subset of IT governance. The key benefits of a cloud governance program are optimization to reduce costs while scaling and evading security risks. Other benefits include compliance and risk management.
Since cloud governance entails managing assets and services outside the organization, enforcement and security are vital. With the rise in threats to cybersecurity and the growing demand for privacy in digital assets, there is a need for a proactive stance in cloud governance. When it comes to risk management in cloud computing, given the speed with which new threats arise, building a reactive cloud governance model will result in the company and cloud service provider falling behind. Therefore, Royal Cyber believes that the IaC (Infrastructure as Code) model holds the key to proactive cloud governance.
When setting up cloud resources, a large part of the time goes into configuration. With the help of the IaC model, which heavily relies on automation, businesses can harness the following advantages:
Configuration and deployment consistency
Fast builds of servers and apps
Continuous delivery pipeline
Reduction in human error
Financial savings in the long run
The central role of the cloud governance model is to establish the legitimacy of the cloud resources set up. To ensure this, role-based access to cloud services plays an important role. And with IaC, personnel can only deploy resources in the cloud repository and IaC code library that is being used. With IaC, there is a single version of truth for cloud infrastructure. The main concern with IaC is that businesses need to ensure that the repository matches what is present in the organization.
To learn more about how our GCP experts stay ahead of the latest innovations in cloud infrastructure, read our blog on Terraformer.
How Google Cloud keeps Cloud Governance proactive
Public cloud service providers also give access to the resources that ease the processes of cloud governance. For instance, Google Cloud Platform has a product known as Policy Intelligence. Businesses can access policy controls that reduce security risks and data loss without increasing workloads with this product. For enforcing role-based access, the IAM Recommender utilizes machine learning to provide recommendations for resource accessibility, thus reducing the attack surface. And when it comes to diagnosing lack of access to a resource, Policy Troubleshooter helps admins quickly diagnose root cause and means to remediate if needed. In addition, with Policy Analyzer, admins will have data visibility and quick means to analyse various issues around access to services. At the same time, Policy Simulator helps admins and personnel understand the consequences of changing access for specific users.
IaC is key to maintaining consistency and automating configuration processes. IaC ensures that administrators can focus on aspects of the cloud governance program that help meet business objectives without excessively focusing on the setup of cloud assets. Furthermore, with the help of tools such as Recommender for sizing VM instances, one can automate the pipeline, thus keeping track of the changes within the organization. Therefore, a business can stay ahead of the curve with ease with the help of these tools.
Where does Royal Cyber step in?
Cloud governance is the primary role of the cloud service partner. As partners of Google Cloud, we have the expertise to leverage the tools necessary to ensure that cloud governance is a smooth and dynamic process. Most importantly, our experts have the essential business perspective. Cloud governance is the intersection of IT departments, cybersecurity concerns, and business concerns; therefore, it is only natural for companies to avail the services of a trusted third-party organization that helps them with this aspect of cloud computing. Some of the cloud governance best practices our team engage in include:
- Eliminating increase of costs through constant optimization of cloud services
- Consulting with the organization’s team to ensure a planned automated cloud infrastructure pipelines process.
- 24x7 support and constant monitoring of cloud environment eases governance, thus allowing for focus on core business development.
- Develop governance plans continuously in line with the latest innovations and compliance requirements in business.
For more information, contact us at [email protected] or visit us at www.royalcyber.com
