Okay, so you understand what Cloud Computing is and why it's important. Now you need to adapt the way your organization evaluates and procures IT services to the new realities of the cloud marketplace. This book presents the world's first comprehensive set of metrics designed specifically for evaluating cloud services. It is designed to be an invaluable resource for professionals in both IT and Procurement and combines existing leading practices from the sourcing world with the new approaches required for cloud. In addition to the metrics themselves, a wealth of templates, scoring guidelines, leading practices and examples are provided so that this tool can be put to use immediately for real-world decision making. For any service evaluation, from the most strategic partnerships down to simple one-off projects, it's time to start avoiding the potentially costly mistakes and false starts that have accompanied many of the early attempts to source the cloud. No one involved in selecting or procuring cloud services should be without it.

"Cloud Computing Protected" describes the most important security challenges that organizations face by adopting public cloud services and implementing cloud-based infrastructure.

By allowing consumers to access computing services without owning computing infrastructures, Cloud computing has emerged as one of the most promising computing paradigms in industry. An increasing number of commercial Cloud services supplied by various providers are now available in the Cloud market. Since different Cloud providers have their own idiosyncratic characteristics when developing services, different and competitive Cloud services have been offered with different terminologies, definitions, techniques and pricing models. Furthermore, even the same Cloud provider can supply different kinds of services with similar functionalities for different purposes. For example, Amazon has provided several storage service options, such as S3, EBS, and the local disk on EC2. As such, rigorous evaluation would be one of the prerequisites of employing Cloud services. In fact, Cloud services evaluation is crucial and beneficial for all the participants in the Cloud ecosystem ranging from service consumers (e.g., cost-benefit analysis) to providers (e.g., direction of improvement). When it comes to evaluation implementations, a suitable methodology essentially plays a strategic role in directing evaluation activities. However, according to our systematic literature review, there is a lack of a sound methodology to guide evaluating Cloud services. Although each of the existing studies must have (at least intuitively) followed their own approach, not many evaluators were strictly concerned with or specified their evaluation methodologies. Different evaluation approaches described in different reports vary, and some of them even have flawed considerations. For example, some evaluators directly treated benchmarks as their evaluation methods, while not considering the other important steps like the selection of metrics and experimental factors. To address the problems identified in the domain of Cloud services evaluation, we developed a systematic and practical methodology we name the Cloud Evaluation Experiment Methodology (CEEM). The development of CEEM was mainly based on: (1) investigating the existing empirical studies of Cloud services evaluation, (2) borrowing the lessons from evaluations of traditional computing systems, and (3) referring to the guidelines of Design of Experiments (DOE). When evaluating Cloud services, CEEM drives a two-part (linear-process part and spiral-process part) evaluation procedure that covers ten generic steps. Each evaluation step has its own input, activities, strategies and output. The strategies integrated in CEEM are mostly the usage of five knowledge artefacts we have developed, namely Taxonomy, Metrics Catalogue, Boosting Metrics, Experimental Factor Framework, and Conceptual Model. By replicating two past studies of Cloud services evaluation, we show that CEEM can help evaluators obtain more objective experimental results and draw more convincing conclusions. By conducting four new case studies, we show that CEEM can be used by different people to systematically and practically implement evaluations of different Cloud services, to satisfy real-world and complex requirements. In particular, the rigorous activities with strategies at each evaluation step make CEEM a systematic methodology, while the domain-specific knowledge artefacts make CEEM more practical for Cloud services evaluation. In other words, the evaluation activities involved in CEEM could be conveniently adapted to other computing domains by collating the domain-specific evaluation experiences.

Providing an overview of Cloud Computing in an enterprise environment, this resource describes the benefits and challenges of Cloud Computing and then leads the reader through the process of assessing the suitability of a cloud-based approach for a given situation.

Is there a documented exit process as part of the service agreement? How is personal data managed in the marketing cloud service? How much time do your developers spend adapting your applications and processes to use public and private cloud services and platforms? What can you do using cloud services that you wouldnt otherwise be able to do? Is the cloud service infrastructure available for use by any CSCs? Defining, designing, creating, and implementing a process to solve a challenge or meet an objective is the most valuable role... In EVERY group, company, organization and department. Unless you are talking a one-time, single-use project, there should be a process. Whether that process is managed and implemented by humans, AI, or a combination of the two, it needs to be designed by someone with a complex enough perspective to ask the right questions. Someone capable of asking the right questions and step back and say, 'What are we really trying to accomplish here? And is there a different way to look at it?' This Self-Assessment empowers people to do just that - whether their title is entrepreneur, manager, consultant, (Vice-)President, CxO etc... - they are the people who rule the future. They are the person who asks the right questions to make Cloud Service investments work better. This Cloud Service All-Inclusive Self-Assessment enables You to be that person. All the tools you need to an in-depth Cloud Service Self-Assessment. Featuring 971 new and updated case-based questions, organized into seven core areas of process design, this Self-Assessment will help you identify areas in which Cloud Service improvements can be made. In using the questions you will be better able to: - diagnose Cloud Service projects, initiatives, organizations, businesses and processes using accepted diagnostic standards and practices - implement evidence-based best practice strategies aligned with overall goals - integrate recent advances in Cloud Service and process design strategies into practice according to best practice guidelines Using a Self-Assessment tool known as the Cloud Service Scorecard, you will develop a clear picture of which Cloud Service areas need attention. Your purchase includes access details to the Cloud Service self-assessment dashboard download which gives you your dynamically prioritized projects-ready tool and shows your organization exactly what to do next. You will receive the following contents with New and Updated specific criteria: - The latest quick edition of the book in PDF - The latest complete edition of the book in PDF, which criteria correspond to the criteria in... - The Self-Assessment Excel Dashboard - Example pre-filled Self-Assessment Excel Dashboard to get familiar with results generation - In-depth and specific Cloud Service Checklists - Project management checklists and templates to assist with implementation INCLUDES LIFETIME SELF ASSESSMENT UPDATES Every self assessment comes with Lifetime Updates and Lifetime Free Updated Books. Lifetime Updates is an industry-first feature which allows you to receive verified self assessment updates, ensuring you always have the most accurate information at your fingertips.

Security Controls Evaluation, Testing, and Assessment Handbook, Second Edition, provides a current and well-developed approach to evaluate and test IT security controls to prove they are functioning correctly. This handbook discusses the world of threats and potential breach actions surrounding all industries and systems. Sections cover how to take FISMA, NIST Guidance, and DOD actions, while also providing a detailed, hands-on guide to performing assessment events for information security professionals in US federal agencies. This handbook uses the DOD Knowledge Service and the NIST Families assessment guides as the basis for needs assessment, requirements and evaluation efforts. - Provides direction on how to use SP800-53A, SP800-115, DOD Knowledge Service, and the NIST Families assessment guides to implement thorough evaluation efforts - Shows readers how to implement proper evaluation, testing, assessment procedures and methodologies, with step-by-step walkthroughs of all key concepts - Presents assessment techniques for each type of control, provides evidence of assessment, and includes proper reporting techniques

This book covers a practical approach for adopting and migrating on premises systems and applications to the Public Cloud. Based on a clear migration master plan, it helps companies and enterprises to be prepared for Cloud computing, what and how to successfully migrate or deploy systems on Cloud, preparing your IT organization with a sound Cloud Governance model, Security in the Cloud and how to reach the benefits of Cloud computing by automation and optimizing your cost and workloads.