Five questions about cloud discovery in government

Five questions you should be asking:

Why are we moving to the cloud?
It’s such an obvious question, but if everyone involved isn’t on the same page, results may not meet expectations. So, as with any project, it’s important to have a clear idea of what the goal is so you’ll know whether your efforts are on track. When it comes to moving to the cloud, reasons typically boil down to at least one of the following: organizational mandate, cost savings, accessibility, security, and rapid innovation.

How will we address security in the cloud?
Although cloud security can be tight, it isn’t immune to cyber threats, as recent headlines have shown. Cloud providers often make safeguards available to those who rent storage space, processing power, and applications from them. However, it’s up to the customer to enable and configure those safeguards.

How will cloud discovery align with internal access management policies and procedures?
Within the security realm, identity and access management (IAM) is significant enough to merit a question of its own. IAM is the process of monitoring what each individual can see and do in a software system—or more specifically, in this case, a cloud discovery system.

Can our organization provide adequate cloud connectivity?
Electronic discovery tools process a lot of data. A single review job can involve terabytes of documentation, and it’s not unusual to have to analyze it all in just a few days. But modern analytical engines are fast, and typically so is access if the discovery application is installed locally. Users can tap into it via their organization’s high-speed local area network, or even directly by plugging their laptop into the server hosting the application.

How will spending affect our budget?
Cloud computing shifts IT spending from a capital expense to an operational expense. As alluded to earlier, this can be among factors that help make the cloud option more economical than on-premise solutions since it avoids the need for large financial outlays to acquire computing equipment, make room for it, and keep it up to date.

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