Data is one of the most valuable assets for most businesses. Losing information can cost a business money and time and even subject them to lawsuits should the information fall into the wrong hands.
It can take months to recover from losing important information about suppliers and customers, which is why people are now defaulting to cloud storage – the most secure form of storage – to avoid taking risks.
What is cloud storage?
When data is placed on the internet by a cloud computing service provider who will securely store and manage your data for a fee, it’s called cloud storage.
Rather than storing data physically, instead, the data is stored in multiple locations to ensure you never lose it should something go wrong with one server. You can change your storage capacity as your requirements change, and your data will be managed, stored securely, encrypted to prevent hacking and made accessible when you need it.
How secure is cloud storage?
Cloud storage is very secure.
Files are encrypted before being loaded into cloud storage using complex algorithms for encryption. A would-be hacker would need the encryption key, plenty of time, potent forensic software and a vast amount of computer processing power.
It’s not totally impossible, but it is most unlikely that the hacker would be successful because cloud storage companies employ complex security methods to keep data secure. Potential clients should be aware that data hacking is not a problem, but the occasional misplacement of data can occur, which brings us to cloud storage management.
How to manage cloud storage
Managing cloud storage is best left to a third-party cloud storage management company that will discuss your business and personal needs.
You may need customer data stored on a disaster recovery system in case of a network failure, data migrated from one system to another, or your accounts synced across apps and cloud services, so data is all in one place and readily available. It’s counterproductive if you know the information is somewhere in the cloud, but you’re not sure how to find it.
The management companies provide a more reliable and secure system than on-site storage. If there is a necessity for data to be available globally, they can arrange this as well as the archiving of data. The management companies have a system that they will implement so you can access what you need quickly.
Cloud storage security
If you are using a password, choose a solid password that is difficult to hack and change it often. Cloud storage companies encrypt the data while it travels through to a storage facility, making it impossible for the information to be hijacked en route.
Use web apps for cloud storage that have HTTPS in front of them. The S stands for security – just HTTP is not enough to protect you fully. Beware of anyone online asking for too much personal information to ‘help’ you with a problem. Remember, even the IT technician working on your system will probably not need to ask for much personal information.
What is the most secure cloud storage?
Choose a cloud storage provider with a good record of security. Remember, hackers, put a lot of effort into their criminal activities. They would rather rob a bank (the cloud facility) than an individual house (your personal small business computer system) because the rewards are more significant.
Cloud storage suppliers put in several data protection and security measures. For example, they will have several copies stored across various systems worldwide, so should a natural disaster or event take out one system, there are other copies on other systems.
Now you need to look at the time it takes to access data you have stored and whether the company can assure you that once something has been deleted that it is deleted across all systems. The most secure system is one that you pay for rather than some of the free ones on the internet, where the names of files are not usually encrypted, leaving some vulnerability should a hacker get into the system.
If you have questions about cloud storage or need third-party cloud storage management services, contact Buzz A Geek. We will walk you through the process and show you how to have data at your fingertips yet securely stored in the cloud.
