There are many cloud storage providers and often it is as easy as registering with your email and creating a password to start using free storage, but are these services suitable for your business?
It’s unlikely that free services will provide the level of service or security that your business needs. Remember the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) require you to take full responsibility for your customers’ data and that means ensuring the security and data handling processes of any system or provider you use for storage meet to the new requirements. It’s also possible such services will not be covered by your business insurance if there is a data breach, which could lead to financial penalties and loss of reputation for your business.
So, whatever cloud provider you choose, it’s essential to use a service that meets security and privacy requirements, which usually means a service specifically aimed at business users. This is unlikely to be free and will more likely be a premium service to cover the cost of the additional security.
However, many of the big cloud providers are frequently being attacked by hackers and, while they do seem to be taking security more seriously, successful attacks have exposed the data of millions of users in recent years. With this in mind, are the large corporations offering storage as just one of a range of online products aimed at mass usage the best providers to look after your data. Consider more specialist providers who offer dedicated cloud servers to isolate your data from other users.
As your user base grows, the combined cost of user subscriptions will increase and it’s important to compare the likely total cost of cloud subscriptions over a given period with the cost of purchasing and running your own server in-house. Depending on your requirements, the purchase option could work out more economical over the life of an in-house server.
When it comes to online data storage, it’s not worth taking risks. If you’d like help with assessing the options, FX7 Solutions is always pleased to talk through your needs and what services are available to meet them.
