Managing Difficult Customers

Managing security in the cloud

The decision on whether or not to move security to the cloud could be one of the biggest you will make in the near future. Stephen Schmidt, chief information security officer at Amazon Web Services, looks at the decisions, options and opportunities of security in the cloud.

For many organisations, the prospect of migrating some or the entire IT infrastructure to the cloud is becoming increasingly attractive, with key benefits including cost savings, scalability and more time to focus on the services and applications important to customers.

However, some adopters still have lingering questions about security in the cloud, preventing them from fully embracing all of the benefits that it has to offer. The common thinking is that if an organisation owns a data centre, manages the equipment inside and employs the people who run the machines, then the organisation has positive control of its data and is by default, safe from data leakage.

However, we have seen time and time again that the cloud offers improved security and governance when compared to many government or enterprise owned and run data centres. Here's why: control. In the cloud, CIOs can determine exactly what is running, when it ran, how long it ran and what base machine image it originated from.

Many CIOs worry about the rogue server under a developer's desk running something unauthorised or potentially destructive. In a traditional IT environment, it is really difficult for CIOs to know how many orphan servers such as this exist. In the cloud, a CIO or his/her designee, can make a single API call at any time and see every system, every virtual machine and every instance.

While the cloud can provide a higher level of control, security as a whole is a shared responsibility between the customer and the cloud provider. Cloud providers can be very secure, however if a customer launches an unpatched or vulnerable application in the cloud, they run the risk of compromise. Additionally, you can have the most secure application in the world, but if it is on an infrastructure that is vulnerable, then you are vulnerable as well.  

Since security is a shared responsibility, it is important to understand who owns the security at each level. Is it the user or the provider? Cloud infrastructure services such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) offer an extremely flexible computing environment, providing organisations with a significant amount of control over their security. If approached correctly, government agencies can improve their security posture through the use of a technology infrastructure provider.

Dealing with difficult customers » Change Factory

Dealing with difficult customers

"Take me to your supervisor!" he shrieked, face red with fury.

"My supervisor is off work now, sir. I am sorry that you missed your flight to Rio de Janeiro because the connecting flight was late. I cannot change the fact that you have missed your flight but I can make sure you have a comfortable night's stay and get to Rio tomorrow", came the reasoned reply.

"I don't want to go to Rio tomorrow! I want to go today", came the murderous reply.

"I can't help you get to Rio today sir as there are no other flights on any of the carriers. I can get you a bed for the night, a voucher for some food and a guaranteed seat on tomorrow's first flight," a slightly more curt reply came from the customer service representative.

"How does that help me? I will miss two important meetings and I may now not need to go to Rio anyway. And why? Your airline waited two hours at Dallas airport to get passengers off the flight that they had deliberately overbooked. Your airline stuffs up and I get to miss important meetings even though I did nothing wrong," came the exasperated reply.

Not all difficult situations with customers come from such clear cut unmet expectations. Customers are, however, only difficult because of their attitude to being put in a situation where their needs are not being met. It may be that their attitude or their needs are "unreasonable". However, if we can better match the needs of a customer to what we deliver, the customer's perception of our service will be measurably higher.

Here are a range of customer situations where the need of the customer may appear to be unreasonable but with a little professionalism we can eliminate the risk of the customer having an aggressive attitude towards their need not being met.

The early customer:

In a restaurant, receive him courteously and explain when service will begin. Offer him a comfortable seat, possibly in the lounge, and give him a newspaper or magazine.

In a hotel, when they are early for check-in let them know when their room will be available. Ask them where they have come from. They may have been travelling a long way and a shower or a drink may be a welcome offering. They may also enjoy a paper to read or a quiet place to do some work. Remember, even though they are early they will be a paying customer over the next few days.

In an office environment, when they are early for a meeting at your premises, let them know when the person they are there to see will be available and offer them a warm drink on a cool day and a cold drink on a hot day and perhaps a place to work if they are very early.

Dealing with difficult people

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