CISO will be the future CEO in a Cloud Enabled World

Last week I had an opportunity to address some of the finest CISO's in India about the Cloud Security Alliance and Securing Cloud Computing .
Interacting with these CISO's convinced me that they have the potential to be future CEO's as Business is adopts Cloud Computing for agility and economics.
As business moves to the cloud for  computing  IT GRC will be a key driver for acceptance of Cloud Computing.
The CISO will be like a large tree protecting the organization from vulnerabilities and ensuring  business continuity in the Cloud.

CISO is like a large tree providing protection .

The Wikipedia defines the Influence of the CISO.

Typically, the CISO's influence reaches the whole organization. Responsibilities include:

• Information security and information assurance
• Information regulatory compliance (e.g., US PCI DSS, FISMA, GLBA, HIPAA; UK Data Protection Act 1998; Canada PIPEDA)
• Information risk management
• Information technology controls for financial and other systems
• Information privacy
• Computer Emergency Response Team / Computer Security Incident Response Team
• Identity and access management
• Information security architecture
• IT investigations, digital forensics, eDiscovery
• Disaster recovery and business continuity management
• Information Security Operations Center ISOC
  Source :  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_information_security_officer

The CISO knows the business risks best,  the compliance and regulatory issues, the people and their roles  plus the threats and vulnerabilities that could harm the business. 

The CISO is the most important leader at a time of disaster and entrusted with Business continuity management. The CISO is the key leader  in ensuring the continuity of the business in times of calamity. 

 In today's changing world of cloud computing it is the CISO who can give the confidence and assurance of the security offered in deploying cloud computing either public, private or hybrid. 

It is the CISO who assures and overcomes the compliance issues raised by regulators; the CISO also understands the compliance needs of the business best. 

In future the Board will groom the CISO as the future business leaders and the CISO will take center stage for cloud adoption by the Business.

The CISO will be center stage in taking the business to the Cloud and will provide the assurance for the safety of adopting Cloud Computing. 

Welcome today's  CISO, the future CEO of the Corporation !

Cloud computing are you prepared?

IT leaders give tell me the cloud is complex, security is suspect and it is another great marketing gimmick; I am happy with virtualized servers.

But there is a growing tribe of innovators around the world who are building and leveraging on the cloud, the Facebook issues spurs them on since they see a wonderful opportunity for creating value from deploying on the cloud.

AWS day at Mumbai 

There are some outstanding business leaders who are using the cloud for agility, innovation and operational cost saving, there are companies who recognize cloud computing as a strategic business tool. There are a number of these corporate successes I have shared via Tweeter (http://www.twitter.com/subramanianls), but of merit is the cloud based NYSE trading platform and the Citibank private cloud. NYSE has democratized trading with its cloud offering and Citibank has saved costs and  become agile with its private cloud migration.

I believe 2012 will be the year when the cloud computing becomes a global commodity, the question to IT leaders will be  "Do you use cloud computing ?  Those who get into the cloud bus will benefit others will get left behind?

Are you ready to board the Cloud Bus ?

Do you have the skills, ability and understanding of cloud computing ?

Maybe it is time to go back to school and acquire these skills. All the best. 

Be Prepared for the cloud deluge which will be driven by the Board Room and not the IT  leaders. 

The lecture hall at the DAICT, Gandhinagar, India