Cloud Computing: Musings from within Regulated Industries

Protecting patient privacy is more than just a good business practice.  HIPAA regulations strictly limit access to information contained in medical records.  Everything from patient names to basic symptoms come under the heading of protected information.

Cloud computing services have revolutionized business practices across industry lines. The ability to store information off-site reduces costs for service providers and makes collaboration with multiple locations easy and quick. The benefits to services like Dropbox, Google Drive and Skydrive are easy to see, but the question of regulatory compliance is a big one for those in the Financial Services industry. The SEC and FINRA enforce security guidelines with regard to how personal client information and other non-public information is stored and accessed. The only industry that might face more restrictive regulations is the health care industry. Given the need to satisfy both agencies, Financial Services organizations must look at several factors when considering a migration to the Cloud.

It’s been more than a few years since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was passed, and in many ways this one piece of legislation has had a profound impact on the entire business community. The goal of SOX is to achieve greater transparency and accountability in financial reporting, and in doing so, provide a way to more closely scrutinize public corporations from the outside. Stiff fines, penalties and the threat of litigation have been strong motivators to get companies to comply.