The organization has an IT driver on cloud computing to improve delivery times for IT solution provisioning. Separate to this initiative, a business case has been approved for replacing the existing banking platform for credit card processing with a newer offering. It is the security practitioner’s responsibility to evaluate whether the new credit card processing platform can be hosted within a cloud environment. Which of the following BEST balances the security risk and IT drivers for cloud computing?

The organization has an IT driver on cloud computing to improve delivery times for IT solution provisioning. Separate to this initiative, a business case has been approved for replacing the existing banking platform for credit card processing with a newer offering. It is the security practitioner’s responsibility to evaluate whether the new credit card processing platform can be hosted within a cloud environment. Which of the following BEST balances the security risk and IT drivers for cloud computing?
A . A third-party cloud computing platform makes sense for new IT solutions. This should be endorsed going forward so as to align with the IT strategy. However, the security practitioner will need to ensure that the third-party cloud provider does regular penetration tests to ensure that all data is secure.
B . Using a third-party cloud computing environment should be endorsed going forward. This aligns with the organization’s strategic direction. It also helps to shift any risk and regulatory compliance concerns away from the company’s internal IT department. The next step will be to evaluate each of the cloud computing vendors, so that a vendor can then be selected for hosting the new credit card processing platform.
C . There may be regulatory restrictions with credit cards being processed out of country or processed by shared hosting providers. A private cloud within the company should be considered. An options paper should be created which outlines the risks, advantages, disadvantages of relevant choices and it should recommended a way forward.
D . Cloud computing should rarely be considered an option for any processes that need to be significantly secured. The security practitioner needs to convince the stakeholders that the new platform can only be delivered internally on physical infrastructure.

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Answer: C