If confidential, personal or financial data from a company falls into the wrong hands the results can be catastrophic. Identity theft, loss of intellectual property, and even fraud can be the outcome. This will not only cause damage to the business in the short term but could lead to a loss of client trust and ultimately a substantial downturn in business.
Whether you run your business as a sole trader, a partnership, a limited or umbrella company, if you store data in the cloud you potentially have a lot to lose if your host suffers a malicious attack. You risk exposure of your confidential client information; your own business accounts and tax information; and sensitive payroll data including bank account details, national insurance numbers and employee addresses. Even if these details are stored electronically it is wise to also hold hard copy documents as a precautionary measure. In addition, ensure these are stored with a professional document management company and easily accessible should the need arise.
However, the risks aside, the cloud does also offer substantial benefits including access to much larger data storage; faster downloads; virtual access from anywhere in the world; and regular backups to prevent loss or corruption of data. How then do you successfully take advantage of these benefits while protecting your business?
Hardware
Downtime can be an issue so you need to ask about the servers at the cloud data centre where your information will be held. Get the full technical specs and make sure they are sufficient for your needs. Also ask whether the servers are out of the box when they are first installed as you don’t want your data held on outdated hardware.
Security and Compliance
This will vary depending on your industry but your business may be audited regularly to ensure your data protection, security and compliance are all in order. Unfortunately, any issues might result in a fine. Therefore, in turn you need to check into the security and compliance of the cloud data centre you are intending to use. Best practice is to ensure they are ISO compliant.
Encryption
Because data in the cloud is not stored on your own servers you have less direct control over security, downtime and access by data centre staff. The best way to overcome this is to choose a cloud host which encrypts data, both while it is in transit and during the time it is being stored. That way, even if your cloud provider should suffer a malicious attack, your data should remain secure.
Guarantees
Examine what guarantees the cloud host offers. The contract you draw up should cover what downtime is permitted, what will happen in the event of any downtime and how quickly data can be restored from a backup. The ideal scenario is to go with a provider who guarantees 100% uptime.
Disaster Planning
Also examine what disaster planning is in place at the cloud data centre. This should be in place whether the centre suffers a denial of service attack, a hacking breach or even a natural disaster such as a fire. You need to know what immediate action they will take, where the data is backed up to externally and how quickly you will be able to access your data again after the event.
Reputation
Finally, word of mouth is a great way to learn about a cloud host which may be a good fit for you, however don’t go on personal recommendation alone. Ensure you do adequate research and examine all the potential risks. You can also look at online reviews and see what experiences much larger numbers of people have had with the company. The choice of a cloud host is a big decision and one which needs to be weighed carefully, after all as we have seen a mistake could be costly, both financially and professionally.
