How To Keep Your Small Business Safe To The Cloud

Moving to the cloud seems like a must-do for most of businesses. As guys from REM would put it, this really is the end of the world as we know it and the first casualties might be the external disk manufacturers. Thanks to the growing presence and availability of the cloud service all over the world, we have less and less needs for storing data onto portable drives, no matter if they are terabyte-large external disks or smaller flash drives. Instead of them, we are using cloud accounts from which we can download or edit any kind of data. If the possibilities are so abundant when it comes to private persons, you can only imagine what is offered to businesses to start working from and on the cloud. However, like anything in life that is done in public domain, you have to be cautious about the risks that might be lurking around the global network.

Check your cloud provider

Before you decide to sign a contract with a cloud service provider, you should check his or her credentials. The best recommendation is the one given by former and current clients. Packages of cloud services include different features, such as a proscribed amount of space available for you to store your data on your cloud share, as well as virtual private servers for easy access to apps on the cloud. However attractive these offers might seem, you should always have an insight into your future provider's history. If you notice even a tiny spot in their career, get another provider. The number of company that deal with cloud computing is constantly growing and there is a wide array of potential service providers. A reliable provider is the first and most important step to a safe cloud environment for your business.

Encryption and password protection

Passwords and encryption go hand in hand like hacking and decryption. Like every force in nature, one side is trying to protect their data by devising original and sturdy passwords while the other side is similarly diligently trying to break those codes to get access to the data they might be interested in. If you are a party who wants to use cloud services, it is highly probable that your side will be the one that is trying to protect their data with fine account-access and encryption passwords.

When it comes to encryption passwords, cloud providers usually generate passwords and encrypt your data on their part of the cloud, but you should also do some pre-upload encryption of your own. That way your data will be secured with several layers of protection.

Scattered data – less expenditure

Business owners should also consider scattering their data across several cloud providers. Many of them offer a significant amount of space for free. Instead of paying one provider and sticking to a centralized approach to the cloud data storage, you could divide your data into a few chunks and store them in different free cloud spaces. By doing that, you will minimize the possibility that all your data vanish in the haze if a cloud provider is attacked or the cloud-supporting server stops working. For a small business, every saving matters. That is why using free rooms with more than one cloud storage space provider can save some money for your budget. 

While nothing can be sure and finite, the more effort you invest into protecting your small business cloud data on the cloud, the less money you will spend, keeping your data safe.