When it comes to IT, two issues dominate right now. First, the need to extend access to data and applications for people working remotely either temporarily or permanently. Second, the need to keep those data and applications secure as hackers ramp up campaigns of theft and disruption.
Companies can address both those issues with one strategy: adopting cloud-based solutions. The benefits of the cloud in terms of accessibility, mobility, and scalability are well known, which explains why cloud adoption has accelerated in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Less understood is how the cloud improves cybersecurity and boosts resiliency. Here’s how:
Leverage Robust Cloud Security
Cloud providers make cybersecurity a top priority. One breach could ruin a provider’s reputation, just as reliable cybersecurity gives a cloud a competitive advantage. Therefore, cloud providers invest significant amounts of time and money into making their environments as secure as possible. In many cases, this effort exceeds the level of cybersecurity a company had before, especially at startups with limited resources for protecting IT. Some people falsely assume the cloud is less secure because it’s outside the office and managed by someone else. In reality, it’s more secure for the exact same reasons.
Outsource Major Security Workloads
Staying on top of cybersecurity requires an extensive and ongoing effort to install updates and patches, monitor for threats, respond to red flags, and spring to action whenever an attack occurs. It’s overwhelming, yet the only way to make IT secure is to systematically address everything – mistakes, delays and oversights aren’t acceptable. Instead of dumping ever more resources into the effort, let a cloud provider take on the most-time and labor-intensive cybersecurity responsibilities. Outsourcing them to a dedicated team of experts makes companies more secure than they would be on their own while saving them significant time and energy they can redirect elsewhere.
Institute True Business Continuity
Cybersecurity isn’t just about stopping hackers. More broadly, it’s about making data and applications immune to disruptions of any kind whether that be a cyber attack, severe weather event, or a once-in-a-century global pandemic. Whenever the unexpected happens, cloud IT hangs above the fray and lets users retrieve their critical IT from any device with an internet connection. The cloud secures IT from the worst kind of disaster – total loss. And since there’s no risk of data and applications disappearing, businesses can preserve operations (fully or partly) no matter how bad things get.
Sage Intacct doesn’t just offer an industry-leading financial management solution. It also hosts that solution in a cloud that’s built for security and monitored around the clock. If you’re eager to upgrade security and accessibility – not to mention accounting and finance – Sage Intacct doesn’t disappoint. Explore what it can do with the team at Edward Thomas Associates.
