It comes down to trust
Have you ever had to make a critical decision rationalized by clear advantages but heavily reliant on trust? If so, how important was the role of external validation in the process? An example of trust-based decision in our culture is that around arranged marriages — a long-standing tradition that has seen success and failure over the centuries.
Though not as critical a decision as marriage, most organizations today face a similar trust-based dilemma — which cloud service provider to trust with their data? There is no debate over the rationale for cloud computing- performance, cost, and scalability to name a few. However, the lack of control and oversight could make organizations hesitant to hand over their most valuable asset — information — to a third party.
With any trust-based decision, external validation can play an important role. For example, we trust restaurants with certain health and hygiene certificates more than those without, given our inability to go into their kitchens and watch first-hand how they are making our food. Arranged marriages rely on positive feedback and references, mostly attested by the matchmaker.
We are often asked how external validations in the form of information protection audit reports foster the right level of trust. Our top three determinants are described in this article.
You can read our full article on this topic published at Dhaka Tribune here.