Are Cloud Providers Prepared for Disaster?

In today’s world, it is not just prudent to be prepared for eventual problems – it is critical. From cyber attacks to natural disasters, business owners are burdened with ensuring that their data, communications, and very livelihood are protected from every angle. But if your data is being uploaded to the cloud, as is the case with most organizations today, what protections and guarantees do you have that your cloud provider is prepared for downtime?

There are really two levels of disaster recovery planning which every company should be engaged in.

The first is at their own location, and involves their own local employees. Each member of your organization should understand and abide by the security measures you have put in place, which may include:

• Physical security measures / access keys
• Password protocols
• Procedures for storing/accessing company data on personal devices
• Routine backups of data

Your IT team may also have implemented firewalls, virus and malware protection, and procedures for frequent data backup and offsite storage.

But if you have a contract with a managed services firm or cloud storage provider – which most companies do – it is also important to understand what they are doing to protect your company’s data and the organization as a whole.

Quick Review: What are cloud services ? A cloud service is any service made available to users on demand via an outside provider as opposed to being provided from a company’s own local servers. Cloud services allow easy, scalable access to applications, resources and services, and are fully managed offsite by a cloud services provider. The service provider supplies the hardware and software necessary for the service, negating the need for an IT staff to manage the processes. Examples of cloud solutions include online data storage and backup services, Web-based e-mail services such as Gmail, document collaboration services such as Google docs, database processing, managed technical support services and even social media.

The second level of your disaster recovery plan lies with your outside providers. You may have a managed service provider who handles most of your IT functionality and your data backup, or perhaps you rely on the cloud services described above to do your work day to day. Protecting your data with a reliable, frequent backup is obviously imperative, but having access to email or online order processing is also just as critical.

Cloud providers or managed services companies should be able to provide you with their strategic plan to safeguard your data and business operation. They may employ business grade firewalls, or create multiple redundancies to assure access to data even in a catastrophic loss. Cloud providers should also be able to outline their own disaster recovery procedures, their plan of action in regards cyber attacks, and their remedy if your company suffers a breach. After all, in large part you have trusted these firms with the very success of your organization, and it is their responsibility to protect all data and access to business critical functions.

Choosing an experienced Sarasota managed services provider will help you with a broad range of concerns. Not only will you have a team of experts working on your behalf, keeping up with the latest threats, and working tirelessly to keep you up and running – but you also have an advocate should you suffer an attack through one of the behemoth cloud providers.

At Alliance IT, we understand that keeping pace both with new technologies and new threats can seem overwhelming. This is why we work all day, every day, to provide you with peace of mind, and to give you the assurance that your data is in good hands. Call today to learn more about how we can help you to streamline and protect your Sarasota or Manatee County business.