Five years ago, if I’d told you that you could rent a spare room in your house to a complete stranger and that would be the basis of a £31bn worldwide business, you’d have thought I was mad.

 

And cloud security is a little bit like that.

 

The idea of trusting the storage of your most sensitive data to somewhere beyond your four walls would be unthinkable.

 

Now, many large organisations have realised that their core business isn’t managing IT infrastructure, so they’re outsourcing storage of non-core, and even critical, data.

 

I was recently speaking to the head of cyber security at a global investment bank and I was surprised to learn they are actively looking to put all their systems in the cloud.

 

He said: “We aren’t experts at managing servers and hosting data. There are companies that specialise in this, and as our IT team is shrinking, it is much more efficient for us to outsource it.”

 

His company started off outsourcing non critical items and have now migrated even the most sensitive information about their clients, because they have realised that it is just as secure as hosting it on their premises.

 

His example shows how much more acceptable it has become to store critical information in the cloud over the past five years.

 

Security systems were also traditionally hosted locally, but with the advances in technology over the last five years, it makes logical sense to migrate this to the cloud as well.

 

Here are some of the reasons why:

 

NO MORE INSTALLATION FRUSTRATIONS

Historically if an IT or security manager needed a security system, software would need to be installed on their PC or a server, giving them another application to keep in mind when they rolled out updates and security patches. With a cloud based system, all they need to do is open their internet browser and log in.

 

SINGLE SIGN-ON REVOLUTION

Lots of applications used by companies are also cloud based – from Microsoft products and email to CRM to accounting software – so controlling identity access to these applications has become challenging for IT departments.

With innovations around single sign-on technology, IT departments can now have greater control over who has access and where, making it easy for them to both allow access – and revoke it.

 

PAY AS YOU GROW – SECURITY AS A SERVICE

If you’re a scaling company, why have a traditional fixed security system? As your business grows, you open more locations, need more office space and employ more people, and your security system can grow with you. You only pay for what you are using at that time.

 

APPLE IS TAKING OVER

Traditionally most security systems require a Windows environment in which to operate. However, a lot of modern day tech firms use Macs exclusively. This significantly limits the types of systems available, or means you have to purchase a dedicated machine just to run the security systems – another complication.

With cloud based security solutions, you can operate your security system using Macs, or anything with a web browser.

 

CONCLUSION

Cloud based security is the future. 12 months ago there were just two cloud based security products, and now there are up to 20 for businesses to consider.

 

In the second of this this two-part article, we’ll look at what you need to consider to choose the right system for you.