The Wall Street Journal's Small Firms Shift Towards Cloud-Based Software covers the "fundamental shift" towards the use of cloud software and services by small businesses.
The article points out one of the major concerns on the part of small businesses is cloud security and whether or not their data will safe. It also nicely covers why this shouldn't be a major issue.
Key quote:
Mr. Harmon, the Forrester analyst, said he expects those security concerns to fade as more small businesses begin to understand that their business data in the end may be safer on the cloud-based servers of a technology vendor, than “on a hard drive in the back of your store.”
Most vendors, he added, have their own security experts on hand—while many small-business owners do not.
This echos our research, which consistently shows 3rd party cloud security to be stronger and more effective than the onsite IT security of the vast majority small businesses.
For example, our firm has lousy IT security. Despite the fact we have IT backgrounds, we simply don't have the time or the expertise required to be good at security. It's a key reason we make extensive use of cloud applications.
This is not to say cloud security isn't an issue. Cloud companies do get hacked and small businesses need to have policies and procedures in place to manage the security of cloud applications.
But as the chart below from CDW's s Cloud 401: Navigating Advanced Topics in Cloud Computing study shows, only about 1 in 4 survey respondents report security as a major issue with cloud computing.
The slide also has some good advice on managing cloud security.
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