How Safe is Your Data in the Cloud?

Published on 11 April 2022

The cloud is an excellent way to store data, eliminate the reoccurring problem of duplicate documents, and protect you against device failures. Whilst many businesses are making the move to becoming fully cloud-based, other business owners are more hesitant to make the switch. This is understandable, asking to move all your business’s data to a third party to look after feels like doing the opposite of what all that cyber security training taught you to do. But the cloud is safer and more secure than what most businesses can provide themselves.

What is the cloud?

Simply put, the cloud is a type of service or software that allows you to store, access, edit, create and save your files and data on a remote physical server that you access via an internet connection. If you have ever used email, social media private messaging or Dropbox across your devices, then you are already using the cloud.

What Makes the Cloud More Secure than Traditional Servers?

Redundancy

This is a huge advantage that many businesses do not have the expenditure to do themselves. When using the cloud your data will be backed up not once, but multiple times across multiple servers around the world.  Meaning if one of the servers fails (this could be a hardware failure or a natural disaster) your data will not be compromised. Cloud service is an effective way to keep your data safe and protected from physical damages.

Encryption

Before any of your data is sent across the internet it is encrypted. Encryption is when your data is converted into a code that only authorised personnel with a key can read. If your data is lost or stolen, this prevents anyone who is unauthorised from being able to read the data without the key. This is an added layer of security to protect your data.

Consistent Security

The cloud servers, both the physical data centres and the software itself, are under almost constant monitoring. Large cloud providers have the capabilities to continuously search and proactively stress-test their own systems to find potential vulnerabilities and fix them before they are taken advantage of.

Taking these three things in mind there is a lot a cloud service provider can offer a business, that would normally be costly and a drain on staffing resources.  Any cloud service provider wants to have top security and capabilities available to its customers: it is in their best interest to have the highest quality security and data protection. Without this, their customers could experience data loss and unwanted downtime which would result in losing customers fast. Think of it as any business owner would, you want to provide the best service possible to retain your customers; it is the same for cloud service providers.

The cloud can offer you high-end enterprise-grade security, protection, and data recovery that many businesses could not do on their own, along with many other benefits (LINK). If you are interested in learning how Microsoft Azure can help your business protect its data and drive it into the modern business world, book a meeting with us below, or call us now 01908 044 202.