3 Precautions You Need to Take Before Migrating to the Cloud

Cloud computing grows more popular by the day, and it continues to show its value to a modern business world. Being able to dynamically access content while online is a great asset, but of course, this doesn’t come without taking some risks and gambling your data’s security. Thankfully, there are some ways in which you can tip the odds in your favor.

To help you successfully leverage your technology to meet the needs of your business, without compromising your data’s security, we’ve assembled three common risks that are typically associated with cloud solutions, and how to successfully avoid them.

Number 1: Data Theft
The most obvious risk to your business’s data, and any information that’s stored online, is data theft, and other types of hacks that could compromise or even corrupt your mission-critical information. No matter how small or large your business is, it’s a target for hackers and threats of all kinds, especially in the online business environment.

It’s important that you understand that there’s no way to ensure that your business’s data is 100 percent protected from all types of threats found on the Internet. It’s just not feasible. As long as your business’s data is stored in an online environment, there’s always going to be a possibility (no matter how slim) that a hacker will get their hands on your data. What you can do, however, is optimize your network and cloud security to ensure that this possibility is minimal at best. To find out more information about online data security, contact Directive and ask us about our comprehensive security solutions for the online environment.

Number 2: Compliance Violation
Many businesses in specific industries are subject to compliance laws pertaining to the storage and sharing of sensitive information. Due to the nature of cloud storage, using it to store sensitive information in an online environment can have unexpected complications. For example, if this information were to be compromised, what would you do? Depending on the situation, you will be required to inform the victim of the breach, and/or be subject to a costly fine.

Naturally, it’s your responsibility to ensure that your systems are meeting the compliance standards set by your industry. Depending on what type of business you run, there are specific criteria that must be met for any kind of sensitive information stored online. Chances are that if your business collects this information, you’re subject to compliance laws that are often convoluted and difficult to understand. Directive can help make this easier.

Number 3: Immense Downtime
If your business only stores information in the cloud, what would happen if that information were suddenly unavailable due to downtime? Hosting your data in the cloud demands that you need an Internet connection; if this is lost, you’ll be staring downtime in the eyes. This, in essence, is major roadblock that can set your business behind schedule, break your operations budget, and overall, become quite a nuisance.

This is the reason why you want your information stored in multiple locations; you should be able to access your business’s data and mission-critical applications from both online and offline systems. This minimizes downtime and improves mobility, which is invaluable for remote workers.

For more information about how Directive can help your business fully leverage cloud solutions, give us a call at 607.433.2200.