Report finds improvements needed for NASA's cloud usage
Report finds improvements needed for NASA's cloud usage
According to a new report from NASA’s Office of Audits, (OA) the space agency needs to rethink its policy around cloud computing in order to realise the full benefits of the concept.
The 38-page report details NASA’s usage of the cloud, criticising it in terms of risk management and security features, as well as its governance of the cloud. The report says that “weaknesses...impeded the agency from fully realising the benefits of cloud computing and potentially placed at risk its information stored in the cloud,” Cloud Computing News reported.
The space agency currently invests $10 million of its annual IT budget into cloud-based services, which is a tiny proportion of its overall $1.5 billion budget. While the agency confirms that “up to 40 per cent” of its overall IT software could be moved into the cloud as a result of a legacy technology regeneration, it seems to remain reluctant to transfer everything over to the cloud. It did say, however, that up to 75 per cent of new IT projects could be “born” in the cloud over the coming five years.
The report found that NASA was not “up to speed” in current cloud implementation, describing its risk management policy relating to the cloud as “ineffective”, meaning that data could be compromised. Indeed, one of the two moderate-impact cloud services that had been deployed to public clouds by NASA was found to have now carried “official security or contingency plans for two years,” reported the publication.
The report also noted: “While the adoption of cloud computing technologies at NASA has the potential to improve IT service delivery, enhance collaboration, and reduce costs associated with managing the agency’s diverse portfolio of IT assets, fully realising these benefits will require strengthening the agency’s IT governance and risk management practices.”
Businesses looking to move services into the cloud, should evaluate the performance of their existing network and consider setting up a leased line or MPLS network.
