http://www.e-com.com Cloud Computing -- Is it Safe? Is it Secure? Is it Reliable?
Some businesses are reluctant to implement cloud-based services because of concerns with security, speed, or downtime. But step back and ask yourself this: Is there any reason to be less comfortable having your data in a "cloud" than in your own server room? In managing your IT infrastructure, you should compare your capabilities against those of your prospective Cloud services provider in supporting high availability, continuity, disaster recovery, power consumption, and the ongoing management of technical and physical infrastructure. Small businesses should conduct an objective evaluation comparing internal security, response times, and downtime with the service level assurances of the proposed cloud services and the track record of the vendor providing them.
Some of the questions you'll want to ask include these:
• Where is my data?
When you host your data with a world class cloud hosting service such as DynaSis you get two levels of protection -- Physical and virtual. Physically, your data is stored in a highly secure data center with tightly controlled physical access. We'll talk more about that later.
Virtually, your data is accessed through a dedicated Virtual Machine. This means that, while you gain the economic benefits of sharing physical servers with other organizations, each DynaSis client has their own Virtual Machine. This means your operating systems access the resources of the data center -- communications, processing, and storage -- without any awareness that any other clients exist. Other companies sharing those resources also have no way of knowing that your systems and data even exist.
• Who has access?
Through Identity Management capabilities, you can provide access for each of your employees or partners to all of the data and systems, but only the data and systems, which you want them to access. At a minimum, you will have the same access controls you have today. If you choose, your move to the Cloud can also be an opportunity to implement even more specific and robust access controls.
• What about security?
DynaSis' world-class data center features a concrete and brick structure with reinforced steel. It has manned 24/7 security with digital surveillance and both fingerprint and biometric scanners to control physical access.
Its on-site electrical utility substation is fed by three diverse substations and two separate electrical grids. If these were ever to go out, its on-site generators with a static Uninterruptible Power Supply provide sufficient back-up power to run for days with the fuel already stored on site.
It has direct fiber for high-performance Internet access through six top-tier Internet providers. This means that even if one or more providers should go down simultaneously, the data center would still have multiple redundant Internet connections. Finally, where needed, all data is fully encrypted as it moves both into and out of DynaSis' servers. This way, even if someone were to obtain unauthorized access to your communications, all they would get would be gibberish.
• What if there is an outage?
Some of the biggest names in the Cloud business today do NOT provide automated failover in case of an outage, and thus, it remains up to the customer to include provisions for application failover to another data center.
One of the advantages of DynaSis is that, in the highly unlikely event of an outage, they can automatically failover applications from either of their Georgia-based Data Centers to their secondary data center in Phoenix if so requested.
• Won't working in the Cloud slow my systems' Response times?
In most cases, Cloud computing provides a better response time than your standard on premises server hardware. The industrial grade servers used by Cloud Service providers will usually process transactions and queries much faster than typical servers used by small businesses even when they are running locally.
• What if I have regulatory requirements?
The cloud does not present any unique risks to sensitive data that don't already exist in an on-premise environment
DynaSis' Data center is fully SAS-70 compliant meaning that it meets the requirements of HIPAA, Graham-Leach-Bliley, and most other data protection regulations.
• What is the long-term viability of the provider?
In business since 1992, DynaSis has a solid record of steady growth and conservative management. The management team is experienced, insightful, and progressive in their use of advanced, but proven technologies. They'll be in business for many years to come.
Thanks for your time, and I'll see you in the Cloud!
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Can the cloud be trusted?by srivatsand249 views
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