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Cloud computing has grown more popular as businesses, end users and customers decide to store their data or share their files. In fact, the worldwide public cloud will have grown from $182.4B in 2018 to $331.2B in 2022 according to Gartner.

Even with this rapid growth, organizations are still learning about the cloud or don’t properly understand its function. As a result, business leaders have developed misconceptions about how to leverage the cloud in their industry.

However, the cloud can be an extremely effective tool and knowledge on its uses, services and functions can save you time, energy and money. With that, here is a list of a few common misconceptions about the cloud.

The Cloud is Unsafe/Risky

A cloud infrastructure not only protects business from cyberattacks and theft, it secures your data against outages, natural disasters and any other unforeseen damage to your physical business. The cloud serves as a massive back-up system using the internet to store critical data. A private cloud, however, offers computing services on a private internal network.

Cloud service providers invest greatly on cybersecurity as a means of guaranteeing the best possible service. In reality, the majority of cyber security breaches on the cloud were caused by user error.

On the cloud, all data is encrypted and backed up as well so users are protected from data theft.

All Cloud Providers Are The Same

There are many different types of cloud providers. It’s important to research which company fits your business needs best. Furthermore, there are different types of cloud services. There is a public cloud, a private cloud and a hybrid cloud which combines elements of the other two. Determining which cloud service suits your goals best is just as important as the service provided.

When you choose a cloud provider You have to commit to it indefinitely

As mentioned above, there are many different types of providers, offering a range of services. And some cloud services are better with some providers than with others. There might be certain features of your existing business you don’t wish to migrate with one provider. Cloud services are not an all or nothing affair.

As a result, many organizations are opting to adopt a multi-cloud solution. Multi-cloud solutions offer flexibility in pricing, services and compatibility. Additionally, a multi-cloud strategy reduces the risk of certain cyber attacks and can further prevent data loss.

Cloud Migration means transferring everything to the cloud

When moving to the cloud you can keep certain things in-house as well. What you keep internally and what you transfer over to the cloud all depends on your goals, costs, budgetary constraints and performance. Optimization doesn’t necessarily mean complete cloud migration. For some businesses optimization could be moving certain features and data to the cloud and keeping others on premises.

It Costs Less Than What I Pay Now

Cutting costs is often touted as one of the biggest benefits of adopting a cloud infrastructure. It’s more complicated than that. The fact of the matter is, businesses focus too much on savings without researching how to implement new cloud technologies once they’ve migrated.

Moreover, businesses fail to calculate costs during busier periods of the year. Reality is more complicated than a selling point and costs could vary.

Cloud Computing Means Giving Up My IT Team

Many business leaders believe that upon adopting cloud services, their existing IT team will become redundant. However, this is not necessarily the case. Nerds Support, for instance, is a Managed Service provider that offers Co-management services. Co-management means our partners keep their existing IT department and we provide additional support when they need it.

This option works best for smaller companies experiencing growth and increased workload. Or alternatively, companies that wish to focus on larger IT projects and need assistance taking care of less essential tasks.

You Can’t Rely On The Cloud

What happens if you experience downtime and lose connection to the cloud? If your office loses power in an electrical storm or through a power outage, the cloud allows you to access mission critical data from any device.

Think about it. If a server goes down in your office using an in house network, the entire business stops. Data saved on the cloud takes a matter of minutes to access so you can pick up where you left off.
Automated back-up systems are an inherent part of any good cloud provider.

Migrating Is Too Complicated

this depends on the complexity of the network and environment. Assuming it’s a company that requires few services, it takes about ten to 14 days. Cloud providers often migrate businesses that work with third party vendors or have massive networks because of the nature of their business. These can take about six months to complete.

Maintaining compliance will be too difficult

Meeting compliance standards is a big issue for many businesses. Nevertheless, the right cloud provider will guarantee you achieve compliance. Cloud compliance helps keep both the cloud provider and the client accountable and there is nothing built into the cloud itself that prevents it.

In fact, cloud vendors have made compliance a main focus since banks, CPA’s and financial advisers began migrating to the cloud. If you’re in a highly regulated industry, there are cloud providers that specialize in specific regulations like SOX, FINRA and SEC compliance to name a few.

The take away here is to do your research. The cloud is an important tool. And like most tools, they are useful only to those who are willing to understand how to use them.

Businesses face all types of issues. However, advances in technology have made a handful of concerns more pertinent than others.  In a poll conducted by Nerds Support, we discovered the top concerns businesses had related to data loss, compliance and security. As a result, we’ve addressed just a few ways your business can resolve these problems from most important to least.

1) Data Loss Prevention

Data is the most important currency any successful business has today. Furthermore, if you’re in a heavily regulated industry like financial services, data security is everything. That means data, and how companies manage it, often comes to define them. Losing Data can completely disrupt, and in many cases, destroy a company. Here are few ways you can prevent data loss in your business.

Back Up Data

Backing up your data is simple, not easy. Businesses often neglect to back up information when they’re busy or prioritize other tasks instead. Creating an effective backup strategy is the best way to commit to scheduled backups. You probably have data with varying levels of importance. Data that is critical to your business and data that is less so. Therefore, you should designate what data to back up daily, weekly, monthly, etc., in your plan.

Encrypt Your Data

Many organizations collect personal data from their clients. This data can come in the form of names, social security, financial information and more. If this data is stolen or leaked, the organization responsible for keeping the data safe would be in jeopardy. Potential lawsuits, investigations and the backlash from a data breach could destroy a business’s chances of recovery as a result.

Invest in a service that encrypts backups automatically to secure your data against anyone looking to steal, abuse, or access it. Cloud back-up services does just that.

The More (Backups) The Merrier

If you have important data back it up as often as possible. Backup all data imperative to your business in multiple formats to ensure its safety. Three backups are the standard for particularly important data. Moreover, backups on a cloud server and a hard-drive prevents data loss if your physical office is damaged or if there’s an outage.

Be Smart About Where You Work

Bring-your-own-device culture is more popular than ever. With cloud computing, employees can use their own laptops and mobile devices to work outside the office when they’re sick or on the road. Although this is good for productivity, they can also leave your data vulnerable if misused or misplaced.

Make sure to avoid public Wi-Fi networks as they can be exploited by a hacker to gain access to your device. If you’re going to use a mobile device or personal computer, purchase a VPN to encrypt your information. Using personal hotspot are also a good option since they’re private and cannot be accessed as easily.

Work With Professionals You Can Trust

If you do lose your data for whatever reason, trying to recover it yourself might worsen the damage. That is why it’s important to confide in experts that can keep your data safe and facilitate recovery when it occurs.

2) Maintaining Compliance

Regulatory changes, managing costs and meeting deadlines make maintaining compliance a struggle for businesses. The cloud, however, could resolve those issues and simplify compliance work dramatically.

Compliance Work Made Easy

Companies are often reluctant to leave paper filing and in-house storage behind. Trusting a third-party cloud provider to store important data seems daunting and unreliable, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. In reality, the cloud allows for quick and accurate data analysis that can cut down costs associated with compliance.

The cloud makes auditing easier. With its automated data backups and file sharing capabilities, auditors and employees can keep track of and review electronic files effectively. That also means the business becomes more transparent on the cloud.

Tracking Proper Documents

Compiling all the necessary documentation is half the battle. Internal Auditor Magazine recommends using applications that multiple users can review and edit. You also need a reliable IT department to monitor where the records are stored. As alluded to above, downtime and outages can be a real nightmare if your data isn’t properly backed up or stored in multiple formats.

If your IT department is overloaded with work or is too small properly manage record storage, then a co-managed IT department might be your best option. A co-managed contract with a managed service provider allows you to bulk up your IT department and delegate tasks to that your own department can’t do on its own. Co-managed solutions are great for growing financial firms, for example.

For smaller companies, outsourcing tech responsibilities means securing all necessary data without having to hire more individual techs.

3) Social Engineering & Ransomware

Social engineering is an issue impacting every industry. That’s because social engineers attack individual users with deceptive emails. Individual users are usually employees. If a cybercriminal can get one employee from your company to click on a link, they can access their machine. If they can access their machine, they can access the company’s systems.

Once in, a cyber-attacker encrypts data with malware and holds it ransom until the company pays a large fee.

Training

When employees recognize a potential phishing email in their inbox, it’s harder to trick them. Whenever you receive a dubious email containing a link or an attachment, send it over to your IT department to analyze. Even if it seems harmless, send it over.

Social engineers tailor scams to specific individuals and they’ll use personal information to get a click. It could be a message from your bank asking you for payment card information. It might be a store the user shops in offering online deals.

Investing in anti-phishing software helps protect employees from email scams.

Monitor Your Systems at All Times

MSP’s are a good option for companies looking to increase security as well. They monitor activity 24/7 and are available to answer questions and concerns a user might have about potential threats. Nerds Support, for example, trains and informs users on social engineering red flags, working with the user to review emails and files they’re unsure about.

A culture of healthy skepticism will improve an employee’s chances of avoiding a ransomware attack. However, employee awareness is not enough. Having updated cyber security software and dedicated cyber experts to assist in dealing with threats should be part of any business’s cyber security plan.

I’ve briefly touched upon the biggest concerns businesses have, but if you want more in depth articles on these topics visit our blog.

If you’d like to talk to real cyber experts about your biggest business concerns contact us and we’ll be happy to answer any questions about the cloud computing, cybersecurity and MSP’s.