Why Is Cloud The Best Place To Keep Your Data?
It has previously been talked about on our Stepwise blog but there are many reasons why you should make the move into the cloud. We have also touched on the topic of security and how there boundaries of security are no longer physical — you can’t just lock your phone in a box and call it a day. What we’re protecting now is data. Our company’s data, our users’ data. You can really tell how important data is by following the news. You will see that security breaches involving data are a really big deal. And they happen all the time, even to the biggest companies like Facebook. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all perfect solution that will guarantee 100% security but, at least as of now, cloud is the best place to store your data. And here’s why:
Immunity To Hardware Malfunctions
Cloud providers operate on multiple servers across many different locations. They also provide data backups. This means, that you are no longer threatened by a hardware malfunction. Even if you spill coffee all over your computer, your data is still safe in the cloud. Also, you can access your data all the time, even if something goes wrong on the cloud provider’s side, because their huge resources can guarantee pretty much no downtime in case of a disaster.
Quicker Threat Detection
Cloud providers bear a huge responsibility and, therefore, need to invest in the highest quality threat analysis, detection and prevention systems. In the cloud, every single event is logged and kept track of so that the analysts can predict potential threats and prevent them. Doing so on your company-level would eat up huge amounts of money and time and not be as effective. Because it’s companies like Google and Microsoft who provide cloud services, they have access to the best engineers and the newest technologies that you might not be able to get on your own.
Data Encryption
All the data in the cloud is encrypted with a specific key. Some cloud providers give their users the key and some don’t to provide even more security. Most decide to keep the key to themselves and when an authorized user wants to access the data they unlock the key so the data is useful. But the bottom line here is that without the key, all the files look like a random gibberish. So, even if there happened to be a security breach, without the key, the stolen data is worthless.
What To Do To Keep Your Data Extra-Safe
Now, storing your data in the cloud is a great way to increase security but, with that said, nothing guarantees a 100% security. Every single solution available is in some way susceptible to a breach or an attack. Sure, some are more secure than others, but accidents do happen and, at this moment in time, we can’t really eliminate this risk. There are, however, ways of ensuring extra-safety for your data. Here are some tips to keep your data safer:
- Backup your data locally
- Avoid storing super-sensitive information
- Thoroughly research your cloud provider’s security policy
- Make sure to choose a cloud service that provides data encryption
- Choose a cloud service that offers two-step authentication
If you need help with setting up security systems or need someone to assess your existing infrastructure — contact our team of experts when it comes to data security in the cloud.
