Today, people store their data in the cloud with applications such as Microsoft's OneDrive, Apple's iCloud, Google Drive, and Dropbox. There are many reasons why cloud technology is preferred, such as the storage space available, ease of use, and the flexibility to access data from anywhere at any time.
Because of its promising benefits, many companies are increasingly turning to cloud computing. But they often have concerns about the security of data in the cloud. They may worry about their data privacy because the cloud stores the data of millions of users on servers hosted by third-party providers. They may fear that if the provider's servers go down, bringing all critical applications to a halt.
Common concerns about the cloud
The cloud is software or service that doesn't reside on your hard drive but runs on the Internet. In other words, it is an outsourced solution for saving data on network drives or Internet servers. People worry about the cloud because they don't own or control the server or system where their data is stored and whether or not third-party service providers are reliable enough to store your data. Thus, the integrity of your information is entirely dependent on cloud service providers.
Risks of cloud storage
Cloud security is reliable, but it's not impenetrable. Cybercriminals can interfere with your data by hacking into security issues or bypassing passwords. So one of the significant issues with cloud storage is privacy. Even if an attacker doesn't steal the data, it can be viewed and used for fraudulent purposes.
There are several issues when storing data in the cloud, from security gaps to support matters:
Cyber attacks
One of the reasons people are so worried about moving or storing data in the cloud is the increasing number of cyber attacks on storage environments every year. Most frightening is the vulnerability to distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, including attempts to destroy expected traffic to the target server. This is especially difficult in the cloud, where vast amounts of data are stored by different users in the same cloud environment.
Lack of control
The cloud, as opposed to an in-house IT data center, is a distant server where customers outsource their data or computational needs to a third-party service provider. The supplier provides updates and handles all maintenance. The most serious risk is that someone else has complete access to your data and is accountable for its security.
Insider threats
Similar to the surge in cyberattacks, security breaches from within also cause more risk for organizations. In 2019, a threat and attack on Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce site, affected the data of 1.1 million users because a crawler crawled the site for more than eight months. In 2021, LinkedIn also fell victim to an attack that threatened the data of Linkedin's 700 million users. Once an employee takes control of the data or gives other permission, everything from customer data to sensitive information is at risk.
Different cloud storage providers use various controls
Your critical applications, reports, and files are stored on an external server. You may wonder how vulnerable these distributed servers are to cyber intruders.
A provider specializing in storage will be different from a full-service cloud provider offering storage as a service, infrastructure as a service, software as a service, platform as a service, and other cloud services.
The security measures taken by cloud computing service providers are likely to be more reliable, secure, and robust than your computer's local drive. The big players in the cloud computing market use standard encryption methods to hide information protected in the cloud to keep data secure. They follow an organization-wide security policy related to data protection to prevent internal and external attempts by attackers.
Benefits of cloud computing
Cloud storage works by storing data on off-site servers. Data stored in the cloud can be managed, backed up, and accessed from anywhere. In addition to accessibility, data stored on a cloud network is highly reliable and secure.
Below is a list of the benefits of the cloud to your business.
Cost Efficiency
The cloud is generally a more affordable service because cloud solution providers spread the cost of their off-site infrastructure across multiple businesses. Moving or migrating data to the cloud reduces the cost of managing equipment and resources. Avoiding these capital costs results in significant cost savings.
Security
Security is a significant concern for any business, large or small. Cloud storage is secure because your data is stored on redundant servers. This means that if one data center goes down, your data will be held on another server, making it secure. Another aspect is that your data on cloud servers is encrypted. This means that the information is encrypted into a particular encryption form, making it even more difficult for attackers to break into the data. Encryption is the changing of a piece of information into random data. These data changes are made using sophisticated technical algorithms to scramble and encode the information into bits of information that no one but an authorized person can access. Thus, your data stored in the cloud is always encrypted with sophisticated algorithms that no one can hack.
Scalability
Another key benefit of cloud storage is its scalability and flexibility, so you can upgrade your plan to more processing power and data storage when your current processing capacity isn't enough. And importantly, you won't have to move your data from one location to another to get additional storage space. The extra space will be added to your existing storage environment.
For example, XPO Logistics, a full-service logistics provider, struggled with an outdated system and needed a scalable solution to modernize the process. Updating the application in the cloud allowed the organization to efficiently ramp up its daily delivery of 30,000 e-commerce items across the United States.
Artificial Intelligence tools and automated patching
Cloud solution providers use artificial intelligence tools to protect data from vulnerabilities and attacks. Finding experienced security consultants to watch over your data every minute of the day is difficult. However, many well-known cloud service providers can instead use artificial intelligence to solve first-level security analysis tasks. AI tools are built-in algorithms that detect possible attempts to tamper with security measures.
With the cloud, you can access your data from anywhere in the world. Data is synchronized, so when you make any changes, all changes will be visible on all devices synced to that storage service or network. You don't need to know the service, and you don't need to carry an SSD with you everywhere. The data will be available to an authorized person, regardless of location. The cloud provider does all the heavy lifting to make the data available to you everywhere and on all your devices.
For example, Shorts TV, the largest license holder, and distributor of short films, has made its platform easy to watch movies on various devices with the help of Sodeira Solutions experts. The app is integrated with Ooyala (a cloud video technology provider) to provide high-resolution video.
Reliable cloud security
Your data is safe in the cloud if you follow strong encryption standards and policies. Cloud providers today rely on firewalls to protect critical data. They constantly update security to protect devices from the latest malware and viruses. In addition, you are given the flexibility, availability, and convenience of maintaining your data.
Whether you're a large company or a small organization, you need a cloud storage service because data is the foundation of your great empire. Today, technology giants are investing in the cloud industry because the cloud has the potential to completely change the structure of data storage, collaboration, and communication across the organization. Sodeira Solutions has a team of cloud experts to help you map your application migration project roadmap for greater process efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
Learn how the cloud can help your business. Check out our cloud modernization and migration services.
