Economics of IAM and Cloud Computing
Posted by Bob Craig - Dir Prod Marketing on Thu, Dec 17, 2009
Recently, industry analyst Martin Kuppinger of Kuppinger-Cole, posted an article "CapEx and OpEx - the latest thing in IT buzzwords: On the economics of Cloud Computings," in which he discusses CIO's interest in new IAM offerings which allow them to avoid capital expenditures. In particular, Kuppinger points out that, "Cloud Computing offers a way of reducing capital expenditure for IT by getting out of costly leasing agreements or classic licensing contracts and switching to rental models while achieving as much security and flexibility as possible."
However, Kuppinger also warns, that, "...customers would be best advised to ask critical questions. Simply reducing CapEx doesn't always make the biggest business sense," to which we say, "Amen!" Just this past week, we blogged on the Ramifications of Cloud Computing, in which we discussed some of critical questions customers need to consider before adopting a cloud-based solution. While there are significant benefits to moving enterprise applications or identity management to a cloud platform, there are also risk and trust issues that you need to consider and work out with your cloud provider before there's a data breach, not after.
However, cloud computing is all about reducing, but not eliminating, the impact of IAM (and other applications) on your budgets. Wouldn't it be better to improve risk management and security without affecting your budget at all? For more on that, read the blog Creating Budget Where None Exists by Chris Zannetos, which discusses how a Courion customer "...automated access compliance and attestation and automated provisioning for over 100 applications - without spending a single budget dollar."