The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is
concerned that financial institutions are too optimistic about the
benefits of cloud computing and have overlooked the associated
risks that exist with these technologies.
APRA, which regulates the financial sector, has released an
Information Paper expressing their concerns regarding weaknesses in
cloud outsourcing arrangements where IT assets are shared between
entities (shared computing services). This is specifically
differentiated from those services where IT assets are dedicated to
a single entity. APRA states that while this has occurred for many
years, there has been an increase in the 'volume, materiality
and complexity' of these arrangements, including the sharing of
software across industries. Its concern is not the maturing
technology itself, but what it sees as a lack of commensurate
increase in risk management considerations.
