One:
Shadow IT

Shadow or rogue IT is nothing new, but cloud computing has led to a new wrinkle. Now, lines of business can procure IT resources almost instantly. But operating outside of central IT can compromise the enterprise’s security, audit and compliance postures.

Two:
Unsecured data

In the cloud, containerization allows memory or storage instances to be spawned in microseconds. But it is not uncommon for containers to be mislabeled. That mislabeled storage represents a data-leak risk.

Three:
Technical debt

Ad hoc cloud initiatives (even sanctioned ones) are isolated from the larger enterprise’s goals and regulatory requirements. When the larger enterprise moves to the cloud, acting without a strategic plan accrues technical debt that increases costs. That’s because applications, security configurations and services need to be reworked.

Four:
Consumption woes

The cloud makes it simple to consume IT resources. But not all consumption is good consumption. For instance, if 80% of an organization’s applications run on Microsoft SQL server, then spending time and money moving Oracle Database server to the cloud will achieve lower value. Too often, lines of business invest in bleeding-edge areas that produce little ongoing business value.