The cloud is an undeniably useful technology to implement in your business’ processes, and is a very popular option as a foreseeable result. This does not mean, however, that the cloud isn’t subject to some risks. Let’s go over a few risks the cloud presents, and how you can mitigate them by selecting the right provider.
Potential Issues with Cloud Services
It is important to remember that, if you want to avoid managing an entire private cloud infrastructure in-house, you will more than likely be signing up for a public cloud service. With this setup, you are entrusting your business’ data to an external cloud provider who will manage and protect it on your behalf. This is a great option that many businesses use to great success, but there are a few downsides that you need to take into consideration.
Loss of Service
As rare as it is, even big names like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft can experience issues with their services. With uptime that is generally closer to 100 percent than it is to 99 percent, your chance of not being able to access your data due to an issue on their end is remarkably small, but it is there.
Even if you were to experience downtime due to downtime on your cloud provider’s end, it is pretty likely that simply alerting your clients of the situation and explaining the issue would resolve the vast majority of concerns they would have with you and your services.
Data Loss and Breaches
Hackers and cybercriminals are well aware of the amount of data that cloud providers have under their care, and you can bet that they try their darndest to get at it. Fortunately, most cloud providers maintain stringent data security policies, and have the budgets to invest significantly into these protections.
Compliance Issues
This issue is a little complicated, but is especially important to keep in mind. There are numerous laws and regulatory compliances out there to aid in keeping data safe and secure, that all businesses are expected to abide by for their own good. While these can be challenging to keep track of (never mind fulfill), there are resources out there that are equipped to assist you in doing so.
One such resource is a managed service provider like ExcalTech. Our team of IT professionals can take over the responsibility of managing your use of the cloud, assisting you in preparing for (and of course avoiding and mitigating) any of the above situations. Give us a call at (877) 638-5464 to find out how else we can help you make the most of your business IT.
