Write An Effective Cloud Use Policy

You know your company is using cloud services; our Forrsights Software Survey, Q4 2011 shows that the average enterprise has between four and 12 software-as-a-service (SaaS) services in use already, so how do you keep this procurement of services that is happening without IT's involvement today from becoming IT's nightmare tomorrow? Forrester client interviews show that the best practice is to publish and evangelize a cloud use policy that doesn't try to stop this behavior but instead tries to channel it through a series of guardrails that will make cloud service management sustainable. But how do you craft such a policy? And how do you ensure that your employees will follow it? This report provides an aggregation of best practices used by Forrester clients who have been successful in driving this change. The key is in leveraging what already works in your company, having a policy that is succinct and simple to follow, and incenting the right behavior.