To BYOD or not to BYOD – that is the question
Migrating your data to the Cloud can have a significant positive impact on the Resilience of your business, although as Martin Collins of Ultima Business Solutions writes, you do need to select your vendor carefully:
The growth in the number of distributed workforces and the need for increased resilience is driving the need for computing solutions which are based in the Cloud. These solutions remove the requirement for businesses to implement complex internal computing environments and employ teams of specialist, in-house staff to manage such environments. However, as well as the advantages that Cloud-based solutions bring, there are also a number of security risks that need to be considered, so here are 5 questions you should be asking of any potential provider of Cloud based services:
- Regulatory compliance. Businesses are responsible for the security and integrity of their own information, even when it is held by a third party service provider. Traditional service providers are subjected to external audits and security certifications. Ask your Cloud computing provider if it is prepared to undergo such scrutiny.
- Data location. When you use Cloud based services, you probably won’t know exactly where your data is hosted. In fact, you may not even know what country it will be stored in. Ask your provider if it will commit to storing and processing data within specific jurisdictions and request they make a contractual commitment to obey the local privacy requirements.
- Data segregation. Information in the cloud will typically be held in a shared environment alongside information from other customers. Encrypting your data will help to safeguard its confidentiality, but you should also be asking your Cloud vendor to provide guarantees around segregation of data and other robust methods to protect your information.
- Recovery. The business continuity capabilities of your cloud service provider is critical in the event of a disaster, such as corruption of your data or a major power failure. You need to be asking your provider if it has the ability to do a complete restoration of data, how long it will take and if it has tested its recovery capabilities.
- Long-term viability. You also need to be asking what happens to your information in the event your provider goes out of business or it is acquired by another organisation. You need to be asking how you can get your information back and what format it will be in so you can be sure it will work on a replacement system.
If you are considering a migration to the cloud or would just like to learn more about the Pros and Cons please Contact Us and we will put you in touch with a Cloud specialist.
