Installing business applications or documents on a local computer’s hard drive has become quaint over time. Most business owners now prefer saving their files or hosting software on a cloud server that is located far away from their work location. With cloud hosting, you get access to several positives for your business, including:
- You need not clutter your local computer with software and data files.
- You will access both software and data in case your device crashes.
- You can collaborate with your team more easily without saving multiple copies of the same files.
However, you might have also heard about concerns related to cloud computing. For example, when hosted on servers managed by a cloud service provider, will your business applications and sensitive data be more vulnerable to data breaches? We will cover various aspects to help you understand cloud security.
More About Cloud Server Security for Your Business
If you are switching to cloud hosting for the first time, it is obvious to wonder how secure your data will be when hosted on a cloud server. After all, your data and software are stored on servers you do not own. The truth is – the data you save with a cloud hosting provider is likely safer than the one you store on a local hard drive. This is because the security measures deployed by renowned cloud providers are more powerful and robust than you might have to protect your office computers.
Given below are some of the security measures that protect cloud-hosted data and applications:
-
Periodic security updates
How often do you or your team members ignore system update notifications? Whether it is for the operating system, email service, or browser, many users fail to proceed with getting updates, not knowing the fact that it can make your device vulnerable to security issues. The new system updates may contain better versions of security checks to protect your device from viruses or malware.
By migrating your data and applications to the cloud, you can avoid worrying about this side of security maintenance. The chosen cloud solution provider overseeing the servers will keep an eye on updating the security measures consistently.
-
In-built firewalls
Firewalls are computer network security systems or software programs that monitor and filter network traffic – both incoming and outgoing, based on your company’s security policies. Simply put, it acts as a barrier between the public Internet and your private internal network and allows only non-threatening traffic.
Cloud providers rely on firewalls to protect your data against possible threats. They can be hardware- or software-based and are designed to keep your data behind the wall while filtering out suspicious traffic. With in-built firewalls associated with cloud servers, it becomes easier to prevent hackers from slipping viruses or malware.
-
Redundancy
If you have ever faced hardware failure or power outages, you know how difficult it can be to access the data stored locally. If a natural disaster is a cause behind these failures, the level of difficulty and potential data loss can grow significantly. This is where cloud hosting solutions can come to your rescue with their redundancy feature.
In technical terms, redundancy means copying and storing your data on servers in different data centers. As an end-user benefit, you can access the data from the backup server even if one server goes down due to hardware failure.
-
Data encryption
Consider the following analogy to understand the benefit of encryption –
You store all the precious stones and metals you possess in a box that can only be opened using a specialized key. Can any unauthorized user who does not have the key be able to steal your possessions?
This box-to-key analogy is synonymous with data encryption which refers to translating data files into a code or ciphertext that can only be read using the decryption key. The primary purpose of data encryption is to ensure digital data confidentiality when it is stored or transmitted via different networks. Cloud hosting providers provide data security using modern encryption algorithms and can benefit your business in the long run.
Recommended Read: Cloud Disaster Recovery: Importance, How It Works, and More
-
On-demand IP-Based Restrictions
Having unauthorized users trying to access your data from distant locations is a sign of cyber intrusion. You can benefit from IP-based restrictions if you do not want users beyond the native geographical boundaries to access data. It allows you to limit access to the business data only to a specific IP address range. If the IP address of a user trying to log in to the cloud server is not on the list, the system will deny the login request.
As detailed above, the overall security of data and applications hosted on the cloud depends on selecting a cloud service provider. To discuss your cloud hosting requirements with Verito, call us at 1855-583-7486.
