Bring your own cloud means the customer keeps a workload inside that customer's own cloud account, while a provider may still supply the software around it.
The same short name is sometimes used for bring your own carrier, meaning the customer supplies the network path, so a contract must say which meaning applies.
How it works
In the cloud account sense, the customer usually keeps identity, network rules, and data location under their own subscription, and the provider installs or manages an application there.
That split can satisfy data residency or procurement rules, but it also means a mistake in the customer account can expose the workload even when the provider's code is sound.
Security duties need a written map: who patches the platform, who reads logs, who may open an inbound path, and who pays if the account is misconfigured.
Without that map, each side assumes the other is watching.
Concrete examples
- A hospital requires a clinical application to run inside the hospital cloud account so patient data never sits in the vendor tenant.
- A vendor deploys its software into the customer subscription and still cannot see neighboring workloads the customer did not share.
- A contract uses the same short name for a telecom choice, and the security team must not assume it means a cloud account.
Protective measures
- Write in the contract whether the phrase means your cloud account or your own network carrier, and do not leave the abbreviation undefined.
- Map who configures identity, logging, network exposure, and patching in the account that holds the workload.
- Restrict the provider's access to the roles it needs, and review those roles when the project changes.
- Include the customer account in your cloud posture reviews, because the workload inherits the account's mistakes.
Related articles
The article What is cloud security in practice? sets out the broader duties that still apply inside a customer owned account.
The article What is bring your own license? covers bringing an existing software license, which is a commercial choice rather than an account boundary.
The article What is cloud security posture management? explains continuous checks for misconfiguration in the account that holds the workload.