A recent study conducted by KPMG found that 81 per cent of businesses are either evaluating cloud services, planned a cloud implementation or had already implemented a cloud strategy. About one of 10 respondents said they had no immediate plans to start using the cloud.
Cloud computing seems to be on everyone’s lips these days, which makes it one of the ICT trends quietly catching up across the world, apparently, because business applications are moving to the cloud.
In the past, traditional business applications were very complicated and expensive, just as the hardware and software needed to run the applications were massive and required a large team of experts to install, configure, test-run, secure and update.
What is cloud computing?
Cloud computing is the practice of using a network of remote servers, hosted on the internet to store, manage and process data rather than on a local server owned solely by an individual or an organisation. Cloud computing is simply a bunch of networked servers serving a large number of organisations across geographical boundaries.
Businesses can choose to deploy applications on public, private, hybrid clouds or the newer community cloud.
How cloud computing works?
Let’s say you are the chief executive officer of a large corporation. Part of your responsibilities will include ensuring that your workers have access to the right hardware and software to help to perform optimally. Buying computers for everyone is not the only thing you will be doing. You also have to buy the requisite software or obtain software licences sometimes for single or multiple users.
This round of purchases is not usually one-off because for each new employee, you must go through the ritual all over again. For most chief executive officers, this is not the challenge; it is the huge expense that goes with continually buying hardware and software, renewing software licences or maintaining hardware. Nothing can be more stressful, time consuming and money guzzling as this.
But cloud computing takes away all that stress, as well as cut down on costs.
There are a number of ways you can use cloud computing and they include, as part of the infrastructure, platform, software, or storage.
Five ways to keep your information secure in the Cloud
I understand that security is a huge challenge when it comes to using cloud-based services. That is why I recommend that you should do the following:
1. Use difficult passwords
One of the best ways to secure your information in the cloud is to ensure that whatever password you use is hard to crack. In fact, experts advise that your passwords should be alphanumeric or some kind of gibberish because hackers or cyber criminals are very adept at grabbing peoples passwords for criminal intents and purposes. Always think of your passwords as safety locks, because the more complicated your passwords are, the more difficult will it be for hackers or cyber criminals to feast on your data.
2. Vary passwords for all your online activities
For every time you are required to supply a password online, use a different one. For example, never use the same password for your Gmail or Yahoo accounts or re-use a password when creating your personal profile on a social media platform.
The reason is simple. If you recycle passwords, chances are that hackers or cyber criminals will someday get hold of this one-fits-all password, and if they do, they will feast on you like a pack of hungry lions.
3. Never disclose your password to anyone
Regardless of how close some persons are to you, don’t disclose your password to them. The more people know your password, the riskier it becomes for you and your data. Remember, the other person might not be as security conscious as you are, so keep your passwords personal.
4. Use LastPas
LastPass is a cloud-based service that makes managing data on the web easier. It is a password management utility that locks all of your various passwords behind one master password. Thus, you can create separate logins for email, Facebook, Twitter, cloud storage and everything else you do online, but still access those accounts by memorising one single password that ought to be changed frequently.
In my case, I don’t even know what my master password is. I have it hidden somewhere in the cloud.
5. Back up data
The need to back up your data cannot be stressed enough. A power surge, faulty hard drive platter, other unexpected system failure or even a total system crash could happen at any time; and if your data isn’t backed up, you’ll lose it. The answer to the dilemma is cloud storage solutions.
With your data securely backed up and your passwords not capable of being cracked, you’ve come a long way towards making your information secure in the cloud.