Facts on Data Security in the cloud
"How secure is our company data in the cloud?" This question comes up again and again when it comes to purchasing a new ERP system. After all, large amounts of sensitive data are processed in ERP systems in particular. In addition, any failure can have serious consequences for day-to-day business.
In view of these circumstances, many managers consider the cloud to be risky, and the server in the company's own building initially seems safer. Instead of storing sensitive data hundreds of kilometers away on the servers of a foreign company, one always has it available here on site.
However, this idea is an outright fallacy. After all, the security of data does not depend on the physical proximity of the storage location. In this article, we will show you why the cloud is much more secure than a small, local data center.
The danger is real
According to the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony and Leibniz University in Hanover, nearly 40 percent of all German companies fell victim to a serious cyberattack in 2019. The damage per attack amounted to a whopping 16,900 euros on average.
And cybercrime is just one of many threats: 4 out of 5 German companies experienced a massive disruption of their IT infrastructure with major data outages in 2018. And 32% of these companies were unable to recover their data!
So the concern about the security of corporate data is completely justified. Only, in many cases, it leads to the wrong answers.
Data must be backed up everywhere
After all, the need to protect against attacks and outages affects on-premises installations and cloud solutions alike. And access security plays only a small role in this. After all, cyberattacks happen over the Internet, so a local solution offers no advantage at all: The cybercriminal doesn't care where the server he hacks into is located. The only thing that matters here is how well the system in question is secured.
All the other technical and organizational challenges - the high heat development and the resulting risk of fire, the necessary uninterruptible power supply, the options for backups and so on - are also the same for cloud and local solutions. In any case, an overheated server in one's own basement, of which there is no proper backup, does not represent added value, but only an avoidable problem.
So to make a data center truly secure, you need to take myriad measures and install protections, for example:
- Cooling systems
- Fire alarm systems
- Extinguishing systems
- Locking systems
- Video surveillance
- Uninterruptible power supply
- Backup systems
"How secure is our company data in the cloud?" This question comes up again and again when it comes to purchasing a new ERP system. After all, large amounts of sensitive data are processed in ERP systems in particular. In addition, any failure can have serious consequences for day-to-day business.
In view of these circumstances, many managers consider the cloud to be risky, and the server in the company's own building initially seems safer. Instead of storing sensitive data hundreds of kilometers away on the servers of a foreign company, one always has it available here on site.
However, this idea is an outright fallacy. After all, the security of data does not depend on the physical proximity of the storage location. In this article, we will show you why the cloud is much more secure than a small, local data center.
The danger is real
According to the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony and Leibniz University in Hanover, nearly 40 percent of all German companies fell victim to a serious cyberattack in 2019. The damage per attack amounted to a whopping 16,900 euros on average.
And cybercrime is just one of many threats: 4 out of 5 German companies experienced a massive disruption of their IT infrastructure with major data outages in 2018. And 32% of these companies were unable to recover their data!
So the concern about the security of corporate data is completely justified. Only, in many cases, it leads to the wrong answers.
Data must be backed up everywhere
After all, the need to protect against attacks and outages affects on-premises installations and cloud solutions alike. And access security plays only a small role in this. After all, cyberattacks happen over the Internet, so a local solution offers no advantage at all: The cybercriminal doesn't care where the server he hacks into is located. The only thing that matters here is how well the system in question is secured.
All the other technical and organizational challenges - the high heat development and the resulting risk of fire, the necessary uninterruptible power supply, the options for backups and so on - are also the same for cloud and local solutions. In any case, an overheated server in one's own basement, of which there is no proper backup, does not represent added value, but only an avoidable problem.
So to make a data center truly secure, you need to take myriad measures and install protections, for example:
- Cooling systems
- Fire alarm systems
- Extinguishing systems
- Locking systems
- Video surveillance
- Uninterruptible power supply
- Backup systems
It goes without saying that all systems must be DIN-tested and legally compliant - and that all these measures cost a lot of money.
Cloud providers have an advantage
Cloud providers are well aware of the risks and the necessary protective measures - after all, this is exactly how they earn their money. That's why these companies don't take any risks. Microsoft alone, according to its own statement, employs around 35,000 proven cyber security experts and spends more than a billion dollars every year on data security for its cloud solution.
With these investments, Microsoft ensures the highest possible standards and has made provisions for all disaster scenarios. For example, all data is held twice - in two data centers at least 200 kilometers apart. This means that an entire data center can be destroyed - for example, by a major fire or a natural disaster such as an earthquake - and users could continue to work without any noticeable downtime.
The anxious question of scalability is also quickly answered in view of this enormous infrastructure: cloud data centers are so generously designed that even global corporations can only occupy a small part of a single data center with their data. So even rapid growth is no problem for cloud solutions - they will always be able to keep up. In contrast, this is by no means always the case with an own, local data center.
And even when it comes to access security, cloud providers are clearly ahead of the game. Microsoft data centers, for example, can boast video surveillance, a security service, rigorous access monitoring and two-stage authentication using biometric data. What small or midsize company could fund comparable security measures?
Conclusion
Making a data center secure requires major investments. Fire protection, access restrictions, cooling, power supply, data security and backup strategies - countless aspects must be considered and secured. In addition, there are high legal requirements in terms of data protection as well as numerous DIN standards.
A medium-sized customer hardly has a chance to set up an infrastructure that can meet all the challenges. Conversely, large cloud providers can invest sums of money in data security that far exceed the total turnover of most medium-sized businesses. If you go to the cloud, you can benefit from that infrastructure - and at a fraction of the cost.