The Importance of Governance in Digital Transformation

As enterprises of all sizes adapt to our rapidly changing world, the adoption of cloud computing has become a primary IT strategy. The cloud offers enhanced agility, elasticity and cost savings, especially when introducing innovative digital services to both customers and employees. Consequently, we are now in the computing era known as the era of Digital Transformation. As digital transformation continues taking shape, adoption of the cloud at scale presents many operational efficiencies, but digital transformation also ushers in new challenges and risks.

Organizations must adopt a governance framework and continually govern their environment or face enormous risk. Our view? Governance is more important than ever. And not having it can cost millions.

For enterprises and governments operating in regulated industries, governance is the prerequisite of a full-scale transition to a hybrid cloud or multi-cloud environment. Governing the move to the cloud sets the framework for all functions in the cloud. Subsequently, enterprises need to maintain continuous cloud governance by integrating continuous monitoring into their governance function.

At the most basic level, a tactical approach to governance is necessary for moving to hybrid and multi-cloud environments in order to maintain effective risk and compliance management. Transferring a system from one environment to another changes the system scope, requiring the application of new controls, both general and system specific, such as enhanced privacy.

The NIST Risk Management Framework (RMF) is the foundation for making a successful environmental change. It is the governance gold standard. This six-step process guides the transformation from planning to assessment, documentation and continuous monitoring – which becomes even more important when migrating to a public cloud environment. Not following a framework like the RMF can result in a loss of control as a result of the move.

This happened recently to a major bank that was considered an early cloud adopter and resulted in the bank receiving an $80 million fine from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The OCC cited “the bank’s failure to establish effective risk assessment processes prior to migrating significant information technology operations to the public cloud environment and the bank’s failure to correct the deficiencies in a timely manner.” So, the bank needed both governance and integrated continuous monitoring.

One would be hard-pressed to identify a breach today that isn’t the result of a basic failure of governance and/or risk management. And as work environments have evolved in the last several months, with employees accessing more data remotely, managing cyber hygiene is imperative. Implementing a digital risk management platform with a framework in place that automates governance and provides continuous monitoring is the most effective solution. Proactive identification and remediation of vulnerabilities and misconfigurations before they can be exploited is critical.

Moving to these cloud-based systems gives companies enhanced flexibility and cost savings, as well as the time for teams to focus on serving their true purpose. With more cloud adopters moving to deployment at scale, they will need a fully integrated solution. Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) and Cloud Workload Protection Platform (CWPP) are necessary components of the solution, but they are not sufficient. A full-stack risk management platform that integrates CSPM, CWPP, and Digital Risk Management (DRM) offers the necessary combination of governance and continuous monitoring.

Caveonix Cloud is the industry’s only unified platform for hybrid multicloud security, compliance, and governance. The platform employs AI to continuously analyze and synthesize previously siloed application and infrastructure data into real-time insight for risk management at the speed and scale of modern cloud environments.

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