Cloud Computing Security Tips - 3 Tips to Keeping Your Cloud Data Safe

Computer security is more important nowadays than it was 10 years ago, because there are so many sensitive operations performed using on. What this means is that for someone who is working with such data, it's mandatory that he or she will benefit from a form of backup that will guarantee he or she will recover the files lost due to some unexpected system crashes or hardware failures.

For any IT professional out there, data security is the main problem they are dealing with when it comes to cloud computing. Even though out there many services like EC2 from Amazon are serving many clients around the world, it seems that some people have data that is much more sensitive and needs to be properly protected. The majority of companies that are offering cloud services offer the same server instance to many of their clients using the same hardware and what this means is that data can easily get lost, as there is little control that the user has over where the data actually lives.

This shouldn't be a problem though, as for clients that need to have their data protected from failure (like HIPPA and PCI organizations) can delve into private cloud computing. Security is very important for such organizations and it's not to be disregarded how important the control over the stored data is.

As such, before delving into having cloud options compared, there are 3 tips to be considered.

Tip #1: Knowing where the data lives. No one can secure their data if they don't know where it is. Most intruders can be kept away by making use of intrusion detection programs and firewalls and the data encryption can easily have the stored data safe, but what will happen if the service provider goes bankrupt or the user will decide to quit taking advantage of this service? Well, the only answer to having data stored securely and not getting "lost in the clouds" is by having a dedicated machine for this task which will allow for cloud computing services to comply with the harshest security guidelines out there.

Tip #2: Backing up should always be done. If there is one aspect of cloud computing that is overlooked, that's the fact that whatever happens, any user should make sure that they have a copy of their data someplace they can always reach out to no matter what. It will provide the necessary peace of mind anyone having sensitive data stored needs. Big companies like T-Mobile have had such failures in the past and they resulted in permanent customer data losses.

Tip #3: Security must be taken seriously by the data center. If the user knows the name of the server and the data center on which data is stored in, he or she will be able to easily conduct some research and see if the data is really one hundred percent safe. Checking to see if the company has PCI or HIPPA certified clients or whether the company is SSAE sixteen or SAS seventy audited will further more offer peace of mind in regards to the security level. More to that, managed services can also be a solution for those who are looking for their data to be protected 24/7.

Conclusion

Being 100% that data is safe within the cloud is a reality, but not always guaranteed. Like with most things out there, solid research is recommended before hand and when it comes to security, anyone should be "better safe than sorry".

Michael Maxstead is a computer networking consultant who likes to write about VPN and Networking related technologies. If you visit his website VPNreviewz.com you can learn about hidemyass.com and proxy server.

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