IT departments break out into a cold sweat when the topic of cloud security is addressed, and who can blame them? Cloud computing introduces a lot of security unknowns for organizations, and regulations and compliance guidelines have been slow to keep up with evolving cloud platforms. Cloud computing is a bit like the Wild West, posing these three main concerns for IT departments: security, location of stored data and access to data.
Security
Daily reports continue to announce another company that fell victim to a sophisticated cyber-crime. There is no question that no matter where your data lives, it is vulnerable to a breach. When you place data in the cloud, data security leaves your possession, making it difficult to really know whether it is being properly protected.
Some cloud storage providers utilize end-to-end encryption and two factor authentication—as well as other sophisticated security measures—to protect customers’ data. The issue is that there are no clear guidelines enforcing levels of protection in a cloud environment, so many cloud providers do not take the initiative to fully protect data.
Location
Believe it or not, data sent to the cloud is actually stored on servers, in a facility, not in a magical cloud. Cloud providers host a vast amount of data in locations that tend to have the cheapest real estate. Offshoring information has become a popular trend for companies to reduce data storage costs. It might seem like a smart business decision to offshore data storage at cheaper labor and overall operations costs, but there are plenty of risks involved in offshoring data.
Each country has its own set of laws in place to protect information, and compliance and regulations may fall short of protecting valuable data, increasing the risk of a data loss or breach. There are also political and socio-economic factors that could affect the relationship with the cloud provider, placing data at risk.
Accessibility
Stored data is only valuable if an organization can access it easily. Not all cloud computing companies make it easy for data to be obtained. When companies utilize cloud platforms to store archival data it can take hours – or even days – to retrieve the information. The retrieval lag time can be problematic if a company is facing an audit or other time sensitive data references.
Also, in many cases a cloud provider will let you put your data in for free, but often charge punitive rates to get it out again. Companies that are planning to store large amounts of data in the cloud could face significant costs if they ever want to move it.
At the end of the day, all companies must be strategic about data management to ensure its security and accessibility. Placing valuable data into a cloud platform without fully vetting the cloud provider could be disastrous. Decision makers should also be sure to look into alternative methods of storing archival data to determine what makes the most sense long-term. There are so many data storage products available, each company should find a solution that fits its unique environment.