Cloud storage has become the safe haven for businesses storing bulks of confidential organization and customer data in the cloud. But, the question remains – is your data truly safe? As many companies shifted their location to the cloud to facilitate remote and hybrid work culture post-pandemic, cyber thefts have become a daily dose for IT professionals to deal with. Cybercrime was already up by 80% in 2020 and continued into 2021. In addition, the US became the worst-hit victim of phishing attacks, recording 30% higher in data breaches than the global average. Hence, a more robust and secured cloud storage for business has become the need of the hour.
What Is Cloud Storage?
Cloud storage for business is a storage space provided to businesses to store important company data on remote servers and make it easily accessible of data from the cloud, aka the Internet.
Supposedly, a secured data storage platform, recent reports on cloud data thefts proved otherwise. Approximately 80% of businesses have reportedly experienced at least one cloud data breach in the past 18 months. For instance, Capital One, the 10th largest bank in the US, suffered a cloud data breach while using Amazon Web Services. The bank ended up exposing 700 folders containing customer information to cyber miscreants.
Another instance where 190,000 accounts of container users were compromised following the cloud data breach of Docker Hub. The breach affected 5% of Docker Hub customers as attackers smartly bypassed authentication and gained access to valuable intellectual property.
The incidents mentioned above show that cloud storage has become a wasteland of risk and expense. According to the Data Breach Report, the average cost per breach reached $4.2 million per incident in 2021.
Yes, agreed, cloud storage is probably the best solution for businesses when it comes to finding secured platforms for data storage. However, the safety and security of confidential data are subjected to data theft challenges if efforts are not made to ward off the pitfalls. Let’s underline a few for you.
Pitfalls Of Enterprise Cloud Storage
As mentioned earlier, harnessing enterprise cloud storage for storing company data might backfire if the roadblocks are not addressed properly. These pitfalls will deter the seamless transition and open doors to cyber miscreants to meddle with confidential corporate and clients’ data. Here are the common pitfalls to consider –
1. Cloud Is A Bane If Not Used Right
That’s true – cloud storage is the Genie in the Lamp, single-handedly recording, documenting, and storing bulks of data amidst its folds. But, in no time, the Genie can turn into a monster if handled without care or concern.
For example, a sales executive with minimal knowledge about IT security can easily grant unauthorized access to sensitive information in any chosen cloud platform account. Or, he might end up signing into a cloud-based CRM without informing the IT team. The outcome can prove damaging and costly for the company as its confidential information is up in the cloud for unauthorized access.
The best remedy to ward off such possibilities is to educate your team on cloud security and maintain a streamlined process of acknowledging IT or others in authority before accessing or giving access to enterprise cloud storage. Also, choosing the right cloud application for your business provides you with an extra security lock.
2. Restoring Cloud Backups Is A Headache
As per recent surveys, 47% of enterprises losing data in the cloud had to restore information from backups. But, unfortunately, nearly two-thirds of those ventures failed to recover any data from the backup.
That’s nothing short of a nightmare if you fail to own a backup server to maintain a backup of all data stored in the cloud. Otherwise, restoring lost data post-cloud security breach can be a backbreaking task, and chances are you might lose every piece of information from your database completely.
3. Compliance Issues With Third-Party Providers
Now, third-party cloud storage providers like Google Cloud Storage are best bets for businesses that don’t want to handle the heck of building their cloud servers.
But, that solution is not devoid of challenges, one of them being compliance.
Lack of compliance information such as where your data is kept and how it is managed can award your business with lumpsum compensatory fines. Recently, Zurich Insurance Business was fined US$3,444,00 for failure to provide adequate systems and controls in place preventing breach of customer data.
Likewise, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited was fined US$379,000 by the Information Commissioners Office for breach of the UK’s Data Protection Act.
You don’t want to find your company in the middle of such thick and sticky soups, right? So, read through the compliance policies of third-party cloud storage providers and work accordingly.
4. Paying More For Something, You Don’t Use
Who said that cloud storage allows you to pay for what you use? Unfortunately, if you’re an ounce less vigilant, you can pay more for something you don’t need any more or for someone who is no longer a part of your venture.
After all, an enterprise cloud storage is like a sponge; soaking whatever information you upload without warning you with a mailbox is almost a full message. As a result, you are likely to end up with multiple versions of the same email or 20 versions of the same PowerPoint Presentation. They all add up, and you have to pay for every byte.
The only solution that can save you from the duplicity of data is by deduplicating data before you store them in the cloud.
Remediating pitfalls is the first step. The second most-critical one is to choose the best cloud storage provider that can make your life easy. Thankfully, we’ve handpicked the top five for you –
1. Amazon Cloud Storage – AWS
You are probably familiar with AWS – Amazon Web Services, which allows businesses to save files, company-related information, and user data on the cloud. That spares businesses of untenable hosting costs, monitoring, and maintaining their enterprise cloud storage. More importantly, AWS ensures your data are safe and secured in the cloud, with data encryption, data backup, easy data recovery, and protection from hackers and data loss.
It offers a horde of other services and cost management options, each hosting its specific usage. The popular types are –
- Amazon S3
Amazon S3, aka Amazon Simple Storage Service, is the first publicly available cloud data storage falling under the AWS umbrella. Here, clients can store a horde of data that is accessible programmatically via methods like REST API, SOAP, web interface, and more. Videos, images, and application data can find a haven for themselves here.
- Amazon Glacier
If you are looking for a low-cost option, then Amazon Glacier is the one for you. This cloud-based storage solution is ideal for data archive and backup. This platform is ideal for data that is accessed frequently. However, data retrieval can be a lengthy task. Nevertheless, your data remains as secure as ever.
- Elastic Block Storage
By default, AWS offers 5,000 EBS volumes, 20TB of Magnetic storage, 20TB of SSD Storage, 20TB of Provisioned IOPS, and 40,000 Provisioned IOPS. But, Amazon’s EBS offers different storage sizes from 1 GB to 16 TB. It comes as an external hard drive attached to your system and is best for storing frequently-changed data, requiring long-term persistence and access to raw block-level storage.
- AWS Storage Gateway
This is the best cloud storage for businesses and offers a secure between on-premises IT environment and the Amazon storage infrastructure. In addition, it facilitates corporate file sharing, data mirroring, and easy disaster recovery.
Netflix, LinkedIn, Facebook, BBC, Baidu, and others have opted for AWS cloud storage services for a guaranteed safe and secure haven for their corporate data.
2. Dropbox
Simple user interface and unobtrusive dashboard make Dropbox the best bet for enterprise cloud storage. Most importantly, companies using Dropbox do not face any compatibility issues and easily share data across multiple devices. The drag-and-drop option allowing files to be saved in the desktop app makes it the most user-friendly cloud platform. Also, users can share files of any size via links to those who are not Dropbox users. You can easily connect Dropbox to your personal account and have all the files saved securely in one place.
3. Google Cloud Storage
Google Cloud Storage comes with a few out-of-the-box options and security factors optimizable at low costs. Like Amazon, it comes with three different options – Persistent Disks for block storage, Filestore for network files storage, and Cloud Storage for object storage. In addition, users can store any file via REST API.
Further, this platform comes with a fast, low cost, and highly durable storage for data accessed less frequently. And backups allow easy recovery of loss of data. Its Object Versioning feature continues to store old copies of files even when they are deleted or overwritten. In addition, your company data is secured with encryption keys stored by the Cloud Key Management Service and managed by you. Also, its Cloud Identity and Access Management option allow users to control and monitor who has access to your files and information.
Clients like Twitter opted for Google Cloud Storage for its data storing and computing flexibility.
4. Microsoft’s OneDrive
This personal cloud storage platform allows easy and secure storage of personal images and files and permits easy accessibility from any device. Sharing heavy files and huge folders has become simpler with Microsoft’s OneDrive. One can easily share any file without email attachments or thumb drives. Just sharing the link via email or text is enough. Further, Microsoft’s 365 comes with the latest versions of Word, Excel, and other Office apps, ideal for company data storing and sharing between groups via the cloud. Also, 365 comes with 1 TB of cloud storage for extra storage space and ransomware recovery options guaranteeing a safe and secured way of storing information on the web. Users also get an added layer of protection with OneDrive Personal Vault.
5. SpiderOak
This cloud storage platform is easily identifiable with VIP-level security and interface simplicity. Its collaboration tool, online backup, and file-hosting services allow users easy accessibility, synchronizing, and sharing data. In addition, the platform guarantees high-level security and privacy of stored data, as mentioned earlier, and online backup for easy retrieval of lost data. However, like Dropbox, SpiderOak offers paid services after a 21-day free trial to premium users. Nevertheless, the straightforward interface and drag-and-drop feature make organizing files an easy-breezy task.
Which Cloud Storage Platform Best Meets Your Needs?
You can pick any one of them. In fact, there are hordes of cloud storage platforms on the Internet, like those mentioned above. However, the success of these platforms relies heavily on how you leverage the benefits keeping in mind their compliance policies. Storing data in the cloud is never lost or damaged. But, how you choose to keep a backup for each can only help you retrieve them back in their native state. Before choosing a third-party cloud storage provider, make sure that you have read their instruction manual, privacy, and compliance policies carefully. Otherwise, your data might not be as safe and secure as you expect them to be.
