Cloud Computing: New Opportunities or New Risks? How to Mitigate Cloud Risks in Oil & Gas Industry

The recent emergence of cloud computing has drastically changed general perception of infrastructure architectures, software delivery and development models. Rapid transition towards the cloud environment, has fuelled concerns on a critical issue for the success of information systems, communication and information security. Several risks and challenges have been introduced from this migration to the cloud environment, thus the aim of this paper is twofold; firstly, to identify key risk aspects of migration to cloud and secondly to attempt to present some viable solutions that eliminates these potential threats. This analysis provides a practical guide for organisations to find the best possible cloud solution, especially in oil and gas industry, to eliminate potential threats of migration to cloud computing environment concerning the organizational performance impacts of vendor’s dependability. The proposed solutions emphasis on actions in such risk categories as financial management, vendor’s relations, regulations, service security.