While cloud services are a very convenient option for business today, care must be taken to avoid data vulnerabilities.
More and more companies are realizing that BI and analytics are now key elements of enterprise IT. Some significant initiatives in this area are investing heavily in building in-house storage systems. Others are opting for cheaper and simpler BI and analytics solutions.
The introduction of scalable and flexible data warehouses has made it easier for organizations to build and deploy analytics services. While some organizations are exploring cloud platforms to configure and deploy reporting and analytics tools, automation solutions have become very popular.
Check The Risk and Benefit Ratio
Cloud based data warehouse has many benefits. Not only do they reduce the cost of acquiring and developing your systems, but they also help simplify often complex procurement and management processes. This can significantly accelerate the value-creation process.
Risk management experts may find this strategy controversial. Moving critical data to cloud-based systems raises serious questions. And from several perspectives:
Security
By storing data locally, security administrators can create and enforce security rules and define their perimeter that protects data behind the firewall.
Protecting Data
By creating a firewall that protects data behind the perimeter.
Which systems are most vulnerable to a breach in this area, and what steps should be taken to prevent data leak.
Permeability
PaaS providers typically use a single instance that supports multiple applications and synchronizes data sets from the same data store. If they don’t ensure each customer’s dataset is well isolated, data from other customers’ environments can be “infected,” and vice versa.
Collaboration
Another issue is compliance with cloud commerce and data security regulations. In this regard, companies must ensure that mandatory information use is not prevented in sectors such as finance and insurance.
Data Availability and Business Continuity
Data access and availability are also critical factors regarding the legal system and reporting obligations, especially in litigation or the need for information. Organizations should also ensure that the cloud provider they choose has appropriate policies to ensure system availability in case of data loss or failure.
Controlling Risk in the Cloud
Surprisingly, organizations continue to rely on cloud providers, given the growing vulnerability of their services. Fortunately, competent providers are often transparent in their risk mitigation measures and follow the best data protection, encapsulation, and compliance practices.
Some Best Practices:
Encapsulation
The vendor offers authentication and authorization features to ensure that only users with the necessary credentials can access the system, including role-based restrictions on access to critical data.
Physical and Virtual Security
In most cases, the vendor emphasizes security, privacy, backup and archiving policies, standards for virtual environments, and the physical systems that support those virtual environments.
Encryption
Encryption methods prevent access to data onsite or in transit to ensure data is protected in the event of a security breach.
Authorization
Companies should also look for vendors that have certifications, especially for internal controls. They should also comply with applicable U.S. and European laws.
Of course, this list is not exhaustive, but by considering these and other attributes, you should be able to find the comfort zone in which a vendor will address your company’s specific challenges.
