Challenges for IT based cloud computing governance

For some years now, the concept of Cloud Computing (CC) is presented as the new revolution of information technology. It presents not only a technical innovation for better IT system flexibility, improvement of working methods and cost control, but also a new economic model, built around the concept of IT Services that are identifiable, classifiable and countable for end users, who can benefit by paying for use without having to make huge investments. In this paper, we show that despite these advantages, the implementation of such a concept has an impact on the enterprise stakeholders (IT Direction, Business Direction, Suppliers Direction, etc.). Many aspects must be managed differently from traditional systems. Availability, security, privacy and compliance are just some of the aspects that must be monitored and managed more effectively. Thus, the IT based CC governance is a necessity in terms of defining good management practices, especially because there is a lack of an adapted Governance Framework. The current IT governance practices/standards (ITIL, COBIT, ISO2700x, etc.) still have many limitations: they are far from covering an 'end-to-end' governance; they are difficult to use and to maintain and have many overlapping points. It becomes mandatory for companies to address these challenges and control the capabilities offered by the CC, develop cloud oriented policies that reflect their exact needs and to have a flexible, coherent and global IT based CC Governance Framework. © 2014 IEEE.