The global workforce is undergoing a swift digitisation process, a transformation driven in no small part by the pandemic’s influence on the adoption of remote work, as well as consumer expectations for a streamlined supply chain.
However, some SMEs and SMBs who are considering cloud migration present concerns regarding its security. In fact, more than half of IT and security leaders do not have confidence in their organisation’s ability to verify the security of their cloud environments, while others are concerned that the nature of the cloud will make their critical data prone to cyber events.
Is Cloud Safe for SMEs?
A better understanding of cloud security can reassure businesses that the cloud can and will keep their information safe – it is important to debunk the myths surrounding security in the cloud, to help business leaders understand its importance.
Many SME customers worry that when they store their data in the cloud, they surrender their ability to manage and secure it. However, this is not the case.
Cloud providers provide customers with 24/7 access to their information, as well as providing scalable tools necessary to help protect it. Furthermore, security features, including comprehensive monitoring systems and data protection, form a key part of cloud’s security measures.
Customers can therefore still be in control of their data once it has entered the cloud. While your choice of cloud provider does not dictate all aspects of your data storage and security; in addition to having complete access to your information, you also have the ability to make decisions about its protection. Depending on the specific features and services you employ, you have the freedom to decide how you want to implement encryption and how you wish to classify the data.
There have also risen concerns amongst customers that cloud computing is too new to trust: it was only 2004 when AWS entered the technology landscape.
However, flash forward nearly two decades, and AWS has evolved into a prominent global cloud offering, boasting an array of over 200 fully-fledged services accessible from data centres spanning the globe.
With a clientele ranging from flourishing startups to huge enterprises and influential government entities, AWS has cultivated a user base that leverages its platform to drive down costs, amplify agility, and expedite innovation. In this context, SMEs can tap into a suite of tailored services beneficial to their unique organisational needs.
AWS holds unrivalled expertise, maturity, dependability, security, and performance, making it a bedrock upon which to build critical applications. Having served millions of customers across the globe, spanning a diverse spectrum of use cases, AWS boasts unparalleled operational experience that has been refined at an extraordinary scale, a testament that sets it apart as the premier choice among cloud providers.
How can using the Cloud benefit SMEs?
Improving business agility
Cloud tech empowers SMEs to swiftly adapt to market changes by providing scalable resources. SMEs can successfully leverage cloud solutions to pivot their operations and secure new opportunities.
Furthermore, cloud-enabled disaster recovery and backup strategies have helped SMEs weather disruptions while ensuring minimal downtime. In fact, Nexstor’s Cloud Disaster Recovery survey highlights that a staggering 90 per cent of businesses are using cloud infrastructure to deploy their data protection strategy, whether that’s a part of a disaster recovery plan or simply a backup system.
Reducing IT Costs of Legacy Infrastructure
One common misconception is that transitioning to the cloud is expensive and unnecessary. However, utilising the cloud reduces IT infrastructure costs.
Cloud computing eliminates the need for businesses to invest in and maintain physical hardware and infrastructure. Traditionally, companies had to budget for servers, data centres, cooling systems, and IT personnel to manage them. With the cloud, these costs are shifted to the cloud service provider, allowing businesses to pay only for the resources they use.
Beyond this, the cloud can increase operational efficiency, reduce maintenance costs, achieve economies of scale and benefits from reduced downtime costs.
Enabling Remote Access
Note also that the cloud facilitates remote work by providing easy access to applications and data from anywhere with an internet connection. This can reduce the need for physical office spaces, utilities, and commuting expenses, leading to further cost savings.
The pandemic-induced shift to remote work reinforced the importance of remote access to data and applications, underscoring how cloud solutions enable SMEs to facilitate seamless collaboration and productivity, regardless of geographical constraints.
As the world gradually emerges from the grip of the pandemic and businesses contemplate the return to physical workplaces, cloud computing, which has proven valuable in enabling remote work during the pandemic, continues to play a pivotal role as organisations navigate bringing employees back to physical offices.
As many businesses embrace a hybrid work model, cloud computing facilitates these arrangements by providing consistent access to collaborative tools, documents, and data. This flexibility helps businesses strike a balance between productivity, collaboration and employee preferences.
Delivering an Evergreen Estate
Cloud services enable SMEs to maintain an evergreen technology stack, benefiting from continuous updates and innovations without the need for costly and time-consuming hardware upgrades.
Instead, they can seamlessly tap into the transformative power of cloud-based updates, ensuring that their technology is consistently at the cutting edge. This fosters a resilient and forward-looking IT infrastructure that is not tethered to the limitations of physical hardware’s lifecycle.
The Road Ahead
In a world propelled by rapid digitisation, the cloud has emerged as a catalyst for transformation for businesses – this transformation is not a mere trend, it’s a seismic shift.
However, amidst this embrace of innovation, a concern persists among SMEs and SMBs contemplating cloud migration: the security of their digital assets.
To address these concerns, a deeper understanding of cloud security is imperative. It’s essential to dispel the myths and misconceptions surrounding cloud security, thereby fostering confidence among business leaders in harnessing the cloud’s potential.
by Josh Boer, VP of Sales at VeUP
