SaaS + Data Governance = GaaS?

I was reading James Governor's recent post There is no such thing as a corporate firewall so you might as well store data online. On SaaS and Data Governance this morning.  In it, he wonders what all the fuss is about over letting someone else manage your corporate data, since most of us are already doing it anyway.

This is something we've talked about here before.  First of all, is the term "behind the firewall" now an anachronism?  None of us information workers truly sits in our corporate bunker, safely ensconced from the outside.  We interact with other divisions, partners, internal applications hosted externally, software as a service, and more, every day.  We are really all on the same network. 

From our vantage point, this really throws all the chips in the air in terms of data integration, something I wrote about recently in Data Integration in a Software as a Service World – Time for Data Services.

But perhaps the more interesting idea, and something that James made me think about, is whether letting someone else manage your data is not a better alternative.   Think of it in two ways.  First, any credible SaaS company has SLAs and must have  good security policies and procedures in place a priori or they  could not gain customers in this day and age.  Are your security practices truly better?  A better use of your IT budget?

Second, I am beginning to wonder if it is not irresponsible not to have a third party help manage your data.  Outside firms audit corporate books and manage working capital (and get sent to jail or otherwise penalized by the government when they don't do it properly).  Outside firms monitor physical and online security.  Would it not be better to have an outside expert host and manage our data?  Perhaps this is still some years away, but seems to me corporate governance could be well served by outsourcing data governance. 

So I wonder, is Governance as a Service (GaaS) in our future?

Comments

[James Governor]

i dont know about GaaS but the industry certainly thrives on hot air..

seriously though - GaaS is a closely related concept to our compliance oriented architecture - but in your view hosted by an external provider. very interesting

[Martin125]

Hello,
We facilitate the provision of independent analysis to support expert testimony, regulatory or legislative engagements.http://www.potentiamed.com