There’s nothing particularly new about the cloud – it’s been around for more than a decade now – and yet despite that, businesses frequently have security-related concerns about moving too much of their IT environment into the cloud through services such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). Particularly, there seems to be a somewhat pervasive fear among users and business managers that cloud-based software environments that store or have access to personally identifying information, trade secrets or other sensitive information, are especially ripe for hacking and, as a result, a potentially crippling data leak.
And though many corporate decision makers cite the fact that they believe their internal IT can better protect their assets if they remain fully localized, the reality is that very few business are really and truly properly equipped to establish the appropriate level of security controls. And although you’ll never exactly know the full extent of the security measures, standards and protocols employed by your SaaS vendor, that’s partially a good thing. The less potentially nefarious actors know about any given vendor’s security controls, the more difficult it becomes to breach. The other reality is that SaaS vendors benefit from significant economies of scale, meaning they can spread their investment in advanced security protocols across many different clients. This allows each client to get “best in class” security controls without any one client having to bear the financial burden associated with these costly measures.
Another factor worth keeping in mind is that SaaS vendors have a lot to lose if a security breach were to occur under their watch. As has been seen in many recent cases involving private companies such as Target and Home Depot, large scale data breaches are costly and a sure fire way to put your reputation on the line, and no SaaS vendor would be able to withstand the backlash that would occur if a data breach occurred that impacted multiple companies due to a security failure on their end. Therefore, the mere fact that these SaaS vendors are still around is a pretty good indicator that they are, in fact, more secure than you might initially think.
Don’t let yourself be fooled by the notion that just because something is “in-house” it is automatically in a more controlled environment. Let the team at ATB show you how your business can experience enhanced IT security by migrating software platforms to a reputable SaaS vendor.