Going into 2023, many organizations are facing pressures to cut costs, while continuing to expand their business operations. Cloud collaboration governance can help you do just that, allowing you to maximize the benefits of your business’s cloud program in a secure way without blowing your budget.
A solid governance framework consists of a set of universally applied rules and policies that keep your organization on track. Your governance strategy keeps you in control of your environment and helps you manage your day-to-day cloud computing operations in a way that’s scalable and secure.
In this article we’ll consider the benefits of implementing a cloud collaboration governance strategy, what makes an effective governance strategy, and why this should be top of mind for your businesses in 2023.
Designing the right cloud strategy for your organization
According to Gartner’s Roadmap to Devising an Effective Cloud Strategy, your cloud strategy “should be a living document that is updated regularly. It should be driven by business strategy and provide guidance to those who will implement it.”
This brings up the question of who will design and carry out the strategy across your organization? While many end up assigning this task to their in-house IT teams, they quickly find that they are lacking the specialized knowledge and tools to fully reap the benefits of cloud computing while minimizing the negative impacts to your organization.
This is why it can be beneficial to also work in tandem with an experienced cloud service provider who can quickly and effectively offer solutions that will revolutionize your organization, while freeing up your IT team to focus on business-centered tasks.
Benefits of cloud collaboration governance solutions
It’s important to understand that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to governance; you should work with your cloud service provider to devise a strategy that reflects the specific needs of your organization. The right governance solution will be aligned with your business objectives, helping to improve speed, resilience, and agility.
So, what are the benefits of a cloud collaboration governance framework?
Minimizes potential issues such as security breaches and workplace disruptions
With the mounting threat of cyber attacks, security is top of mind for business leaders in 2023. Storing your data in the cloud provides many advantages—accessibility, scalability, and convenience, just to name a few.
Cloud collaboration governance frameworks provide guidance as you move to the cloud, with built-in incident management, access control, and risk management.
Implementing a governance framework will help you prioritize data according to value and sensitivity, establish ownership, and understand the responsibility of and risks associated with cloud computing operations. In turn, this will help you to determine who has access to what, helping you to put policies and protocols in place to keep your most valuable data secure.
Improves the agility of your organization
The most successful organizations know that one of their most important assets is the data they collect and how they use it. On-premises infrastructure is antiquated, making it difficult to store massive amounts of data and recall it quickly. Cloud computing solutions can give you access to a massive amount of data at your fingertips, allowing you to utilize this data to guide you in making important business decisions.
Cloud service providers also help to keep you one step ahead of constantly evolving technology and threats in cyber security so you can anticipate roadblocks and get ahead of them before they derail your business operations.
Provides a secure collaboration environment
As the landscape of work continues to shift towards the remote and asynchronous, it’s increasingly necessary to provide solutions to help your employees work together while apart. One of the primary benefits of moving to the cloud is improved collaboration, providing workers with a safe and reliable virtual workspace to communicate and work together, regardless of location.
Facilitates successful modern workplace adoption
Organizations need support in their efforts to successfully adopt a combination of remote, onsite, and a flexible working culture. A key aspect of making this modern workplace work is to provide IT with a way to govern dynamically, empowering business users to discover the tools they need to get their jobs done efficiently and minimizing risk towards cost, security, compliance, and efficient service delivery.
Reduces costs
Cloud computing enables you to store your data without having to pay for expensive on-premises infrastructure. However, as user adoption takes off, your costs can skyrocket. Whether it’s from additional storage needs or unexpected licensing costs, a cloud collaboration governance strategy can help you keep tabs on what’s going on in your environment so you can identify unnecessary resources and cut down on those additional costs.
Helps you achieve greater outcomes from cloud computing
An effective governance strategy provides you with greater insight into the operations that keep your business running, improving your overall awareness and ensuring that in the event of a failure, you can identify what went wrong and get things back up and running quickly.
Ensures compliance
With the speed of change these days, staying on top of industry and regulatory standards can be a job in itself. Cloud computing makes this process easier than ever, as most cloud governance frameworks are already aligned with these standards and can help ensure that your organization is complying accordingly.
A collaborative governance framework can ensure that your bases are covered even as things shift and change within your organization, enabling you to scale while ensuring you remain compliant along the way.
Cloud collaboration governance in 2023 and beyond
By now you should have a thorough understanding of the importance of implementing an effective cloud governance strategy, and all of the benefits your business stands to gain.
While cloud governance is crucial, we’ll admit it’s not so easily implemented. That’s why many choose to enlist the help of a cloud service provider with experience providing and implementing these types of solutions. A cloud service provider can enforce best practices from the outset, ensuring the security and scalability of your organization and offering you peace of mind.
Learn more about how Rencore can help you operate a secure, performant and cost-efficient cloud collaboration environment.
