Challenges of Cloud Computing

Question 1

Increased Security Vulnerabilities

Answer 1

• The remote usage of IT resources requires an expansion of trust boundaries by the cloud consumer to include an external cloud
• Because cloud-based IT resources can be shared, there can be overlapping trust boundaries from different cloud consumers

Question 2

Reduced Operational Governance Control

Answer 2

• When forming dependencies on externally cloud-hosted IT resources, cloud consumers are almost always given a lower level of governance control when compared to on-premise IT resources
• Cloud consumers are often required to rely on Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and other warranties made by the cloud provider

Question 3

Limited Portability Between Cloud Providers

Answer 3

• Due to lack of established industry standards with the cloud computing industry, individual public clouds are proprietary to various extents.
• For cloud consumers that have custom-built solutions with dependencies on these proprietary environments, it can be challenging to move from one cloud provider to another.
• This challenge is especially relevant for PaaS and IaaS delivery models.

Question 4

Multi-Regional Compliance and Legal Issues

Answer 4

• Cloud Consumers will often not have information regarding the physical location of the IT resources provided by third party cloud providers.
• Depending on the nature of the cloud consumers business, there may be industry or government regulations and policies that impose specific legal requirements.