Is the Public Cloud Secure?

Your critical data in a Public Cloud. Is this statement triggering warning alarms in your head? Should it be? The term ‘public’ can certainly raise some red flags when considering how secure your data will be, but despite this understandable association, the public cloud can actually be an extremely secure and effective way of covering yourself.

Battle Hardened

What is perceived as a weakness of public cloud is in fact something that makes it stronger. Due to their public nature and high visibility, hackers know how to locate and attack public cloud providers. But public cloud providers weren’t born yesterday. They know this and have a heightened awareness on attacks, working tirelessly to ensure they are several steps ahead of hackers. They are big players and have the means to invest in top of the line gear and high level engineers.

The strengths listed above can also thought to be the advantages over a private cloud setup, as without the right team your private cloud could fall victim to complacency and then suffer a breach, and over time the setup and hardware could become outdated. Fortunately at Synapse360 we excel as a managed service provider in this area, so even on a private managed cloud you are getting the best industry knowledge and support.

Take measures to cover yourself

Just because you have decided to go with a public cloud provider and trust them with your data should not excuse you from having no part in protecting your companies data. Make sure to encrypt your data in case of any breach that may occur and set up multi-factor authentication. You should also be making sure you’re following the recommended procedures expressed by your provider, including following laws of the province your data is hosted in.

Despite the misconception, the big public cloud providers are very compliant with industry regulations, and many offer the ability for you to track and monitor your data with real time visibility which lets you raise any concerns in a timely fashion.

Migrate Properly

Making the move to public cloud requires you to assess your current status, and develop an understanding of what needs to be adapted to migrate, and how you can execute that. If you try to migrate but your apps or assets are not in a state to do that then it may present holes later down the line.

It is worth sitting down with your team to develop a cloud strategy before deciding the best model for your migration.