Cloud Opportunity Knocks for Business Post COVID

Whatever COVID-19’s legacy, few will argue that the world is going to be very different when it comes out of lock-down. One factor that the enforced dispersal and isolation of the national (Global) workforce(s) is already signalling is the impact on our working culture and practices. 

In the short term the dissipation of workforces due to the National tactics to combat COVID-19, is imposing a forced transformation on business practices and institutional cultures. Whether organisations acknowledge it or not yet, at a pace that digital transformative leaders could only have dreamt of less than a few weeks ago. If there was ever a moment for organisations to get behind a paradigm shift in productivity to fully engage the Digital Economy, now would be the time. When has business had such a universal re-set, a raising of all boats on a common tide? Such opportunity!

Whilst the short term economic impact of the anti-COVID-19 measures is going to stop the beating hearts of many a business prematurely, it would be terminating many more if it was not for the availability of transformative commodity computing services, aka ‘Cloud’ with its instant ‘on’ and global elastic capacity. Of merit is the saviour of the day for many ill prepared organisations, utility computing aka ‘Cloud’. It would be implausible for businesses to independently stand up the collaborative capabilities that are now keeping them alive without a Microsoft Office 365, AWS WorkDoc, Google G-Suite or one of many other niche Cloud based services now available on demand. Cloud is proving to be of the moment and truly delivering on a silver lining, BUT not without its own health warning. The short-term win comes with medium and long term Security Governance Debt to address.

In summary, this is an opportunity for organisations to be ready for a medium to long term security transformation. To come out of lock-down transforming with confidence and trust in Cloud Computing.

In preparation, there are a few activities that will help lay down those medium to long term foundations and establish that confidence and trust:

1. Security Baseline Assessment – Whether you are a mature remote working organisation or have had to adopt remote working at short notice this is a mandatory in any decision making. Do you have the appropriate balance of controls and processes in place to monitor your new environment?
2. Threat & Risk Profiling – Establish a common language that spans Tech, InfoSec to the Board by re-evaluating threats to your environment and how these map to risks to your business. There is no such thing as Mr. Average or Default, Standard or any other middling term that could be used to suggest some common state of ‘norm’. In the Cloud everyone is exceptional, extraordinary and unique and even that is changing in real-time, all the time. It is the nature of cloud. 
3. 30/60/90 day Remediation – With the insights from 1 + 2, prioritise actions, apply the MoSCoW (the Must, Should, Would, Won’t have) method to prioritization. For the mature digital organisation this will be tolerable. For the immature this will be a rude awakening. Better to have an actionable plan.
4. SaaS (Software as a Service) Resilience – The COVID-19 panacea of leveraging niche, ISV (independent software vendor) cloud solutions will be addressing many remote working capability shortfalls. With the immediate challenge addressed it is time to make sure your choice of SaaS provider is resilient and meets your normal business Cyber Hygiene expectations.
5. Action Plan – Putting on a roadmap everything else that sits outside your 30/60/90 remediation and working through that SaaS resilience programme. Strategic reviews are a good starting point. Getting leadership orientated on their role is key and in their ownership of strategy lies success or failure.

Consider these the bare bones to build on the experience and opportunity of these unusual times. A Cloud Governance, Risk and Compliance safety net that provides a trustworthy re-set button in the form of fresh insights to facilitate business resilience and instil confidence to move forward. In the short and medium term, Cloud platform first security will come as a welcomed relief to many a distressed budget, simplifying decision making in the face of the continued explosion in the number of cyber security tools hitting the market.

The tell-tale will be between those organisations who try to roll the clock back and those who take the opportunity to Transform. Digital leadership is about transformation. A key barometer will be whether you are operating to the edge of YOUR potential, to YOUR risk appetite. Or are you being pulled along by your competition or some out of date strategy or institutionalised legacy risk-based instinct. It’s about avoiding obsolesce through opportunity and a Corporate Social Responsibility to maintain ways of working that have already helped to start cleaning up our planet by dramatically reducing pollution.  

 The post Covid-19 world of utility computing will be more dynamic and Evergreen. This means continuous change and to meet that challenge organisations should prepare for change as the new norm or risk being the architects of their own extinction. So, come out of this seeing with new eyes, looking beyond the obvious, evolving established ways of thinking, reappraising old assumptions, finding new answers, harnessing potential and daring greatly.