October 2016
Safety in (Binary) Numbers: Is the Cloud Really All That Secure?
Cloud computing: it’s difficult not to have heard about it at this point. A substantial number of businesses have moved their systems and documents onto the Cloud, whilst teenagers look to the sky when storing photos and music.
But amongst all the glamour and popularity, the Cloud has found itself constantly under fire in the headlines for security reasons. As with most fears surrounding new and evolving technologies, however, there’s a need to separate fact from fiction – and proving Cloud computing’s safety credentials is no different.
Why Are People Concerned?
Cloud computing’s reputation has taken a few knocks over the last five years thanks to some rather high profile mishaps involving large businesses and their respective data breaches. Unless you were living under a rock or had sworn off reading/watching the news (we wouldn’t blame you), then you almost certainly caught wind of the various scandals involving the likes of Ashley Madison, Talk Talk, Amazon and Yahoo.
Of course it isn’t just because the big brands have suffered that people are nervous about the Cloud. It’s in our human nature to be wary when we can’t account for something’s physical presence. Although you can’t ‘see’ data, you can see the server it’s stored on – if that server is housed in your office (or home), there’s a certain comfort in its visibility which can’t be achieved when your information is on somebody else’s server, far far away.
Despite these two prominent concerns, it pays to take into account two very important factors when evaluating the Cloud’s safety:
1. Bad Headlines
Unsurprisingly, there’s more to the story than is immediately clear. The common thread running between most of the large data breaches over the last few years is that they came from internal – not Cloud-based – databases. What this basically means is that the situations aren’t similar to if you’re hosting your data on the Cloud, and thus are a poor comparison. Feel that sense of relief? That’s a good feeling, isn’t it?
2. Trust
Entrusting your data to anybody – Cloud provider, employee, supplier etc. – is a business risk which owners have to take every single day. Whereas there are perhaps some disreputable Cloud providers out there (such people exist across every industry), it’s up to business owners to choose a trustworthy provider, who they can be sure is using more than adequate safety measures in their Cloud hosting.
Reaching the Moon Through the Cloud
As our clients will be aware, at Lunar we use the Cloud to host our bespoke CRMs for a number of reasons. Not only does it provide our clients with greater freedom to work remotely and reduced IT costs, but it allows them to put their data somewhere safe, rather than keep it onsite.
In order to provide our clients with the greatest amount of security possible, we host our CRMs on powerful and securely encrypted off-site servers. This way, data is protected from a bevy of threats, such as fires, floods and even the headline-stealing hackers we hear so much about.
To provide even more data protection, we include regular backups in our service and have trained our team in disaster recovery to get ourselves and our clients back to normal as soon as possible if a shortage was ever to happen.
Taking all of this into consideration, it can be concluded that the Cloud is as secure as you want it to be. Use a trusted provider, be sure to have all eventualities covered and protect data with heavy-duty measures and the sky becomes the limit!
Interested in finding out more about our secure Cloud-based CRM offering? We’d be more than happy to talk you through the security measures we have in place! Simply get in touch and chat to our team to find out more.