How to ensure effective integration of cloud services

Managing integration is second only to risk in terms of the issues facing companies looking to migrate to the cloud, according to Mark Hall, deputy CIO at HM Revenue and Customs, who was speaking at the Cloud Computing World Forum at Olympia yesterday.

However, risk remains the most important issue pursuant to this agreement consideration earlier a cloud migration, and the panelists agreed that the business model for apportioning risk between the buyer and supplier had not but been settled.

Tim Cowen, partner at the Open Computing Alliance, was as well speaking at the event. He explained that he felt that contracts around services would be renegotiated as cloud computing started moving into the enterprise space, adding that risk would be shouldered by parties on both sides of the contract.

"If you buy potatoes from a shop, the risk is largely taken by the consumer, and this was the same with cloud computing in the consumer space. However in the enterprise space, the risk and liability is more likely to be taken on by the supplier if something is faulty," he said.

"An example of this is the fact that electrical wiring within a business tends to be far better maintained and more recently upgraded than wiring supplied by the same company in public infrastructures. This is because upgrading mitigates the risk of failure for suppliers in their contracts with business."