Month: October 2015

Cloud SecurityCyber Crime costs the US over $100 billion a year. The cost for the UK isn’t quite as large but is still thought to be in the tens of billions!

As cyber criminals find new ways to attack users, companies of all sizes are being affected everyday.

If your organization has ever been victim to a computing/data breach, you’ll know that this can cause a whole heap of problems, from the cost of recovery (although some businesses never recover) to the loss of trust from clients and customers.

The growth of Cloud Computing has left many SME’s with more questions than answers, considering 40% of small businesses don’t wish to use Cloud Services for fear of security breaches.
But as David Linthicum outlines in his blog, many organizations are failing to engineer the right security protocols for their cloud-based systems, leaving them vulnerable to data breaches.

So here are 3 tips to help you lock down your security:

1) Encrypt your data using a VPN

Simply put, when data is encrypted it is temporarily transformed into a very confusing code that can only be read upon using the encryption key to decrypt the data.

One way to encrypt your data is to use a VPN or Virtual Private Network. A VPN ensures that when your computer is connected to your Cloud servers (wherever they may be located), a secure connection is set up and the data that is transferred between the computer and servers is encrypted.

A common and simple method of doing this is through an SSL or Secure Sockets Layer. SSL uses two types of encryption keys, symmetric and asymmetric. Symmetric encryption uses the same key to both encrypt and decrypt the data, whereas asymmetric encryption uses 2 different keys to encrypt and decrypt the data respectively. Both forms of encryption are used within SSL, and help to keep unwanted visitors from accessing your data.

One of the great things about VPN’s is that they can be set up for various devices, including desktops and mobile devices, so it’s definitely a worthwhile option.

For more information on how to set up a VPN, check out this link.

2) Two-factor authentication

Another way to beef up your Cloud security is to use two-factor authentication, aka two-step verification, aka multi-factor authentication (phew!).

These days, passwords on their own just don’t seem to cut it in keeping your data safe. Two-factor authentication, quite literally, goes one-step further by combining passwords with another way of authenticating your identity.

One really simple example of two-factor authentication is Bank cards. Essentially, the physical card itself is factor one, and the PIN is factor 2, both of which are needed to access your account.

When applied to cloud security, two-factor authentication often consists of an initial username and password combination, followed by a 2nd factor such as a hardware token or a code sent by email, that is required before access can be gained to your cloud servers. Although this means it takes a bit longer to access your data, the extra layer of protection it creates is worth it.

For more information on how to set up a VPN, check out this link.

3) Anti-virus software 

Another way to keep your data safe in the cloud is to install the latest anti-virus software.

It’s always best practice to ensure you continuously update your anti-virus and anti-spy software on the devices you use to log into your cloud servers. This can protect you from Keyloggers (software which tracks keyboard activity) and Trojan Viruses, which can be used to identify sensitive information used to log into your cloud servers.

Remember, 3 helpful ways to keep your Cloud secure are;

  • Encrypting your data with a VPN, ensuring you set up a secure Internet connection between your computer and servers.
  • Using Two-factor authentication to gain access to your servers, a password and a second method of authentication.
  • Installing Anti-virus software on your devices can reduce the chances that hackers can learn your passwords to gain access to your servers.

It can be pretty frustrating when you’re working with large data files but it’s taking forever to transfer them to your Cloud. Let’s face it, the Cloud is here to stay and with the introduction of the Internet of Things, it will become an even more powerful tool for businesses and consumers. But low Internet speeds can make it a pain to use.

Although, there are ways to improve your connection and make high network latency a thing of the past by setting up a Dedicated Connection.

So what are Dedicated Connections?

What’s unique about Dedicated Connections is that they don’t use standard public Internet connections due to the potential for things to go wrong, such as poor connectivity.

Instead, Dedicated Connections consist of private, direct connections from your organization’s infrastructure to your cloud provider’s Point of Presence (PoP) i.e. colocation centres.

Similarly, TechRepublic describes dedicated connections as an “extension of the customer’s private infrastructure to the cloud-provider’s network”.

One way that this private connection can be established is through leased lines, which allows a unique connection between multiple locations often through a leased fibre connection.

A cool thing about the private connection is that it affords a higher level of security compared to public Internet connections.

This means that when you’re transferring sensitive data to and from the cloud, access to your data from unwanted parties is less likely to occur.

Ultimately, Dedicated Connections provide a more secure and isolated connection to your cloud provider that avoids the drawbacks of public Internet connections, including high network latency and security breaches.

Improving your Cloud experience with Dedicated Connection

1) Speed 

The beauty of using Dedicated Connections means that you get bandwidth all to yourself.

Essentially, as you are the only one using your bandwidth, this increases the speed of data transfer and helps to solve the problem of high network latency.

What’s more, a Dedicated Connection can provide up to 10,000 Mbps when transferring data. This is significantly more than a standard ADSL connection, which can transfer data at about 8Mbps.

2) Flexibility

Similar to how Cloud servers can be scaled, your bandwidth can also be scaled according to organizational demands – the developers equivalent of a custom paint job.

So where you have large data files to transfer to the Cloud, your bandwidth is scaled up. Equally where smaller files are concerned, bandwidth can be scaled down.

3) Reliability

A private connection also ensures that you as the customer enjoy a better experience through a more stable and predictable connection to your Cloud servers.

This was highlighted by Malik Zegdi, CTO & EVP of Business Development at Innova, in an article by TechTarget;

“You have a line that carries only your traffic, so you know how long it takes to transfer a terabyte of data. If the Internet has bad day, guess what? It’s going to take a long time, but when you have a direct connection it’s predictable.”

Reliability of Dedicated Connections can also be assured through an SLA (Service Level Agreement) which essentially guarantees you network availability, server availability etc. with a degree of certainty.

This may be around the 99.95% to 99.99% range, taking into account scheduled maintenance works, giving you peace of mind knowing that access to your Cloud servers is pretty much certain.

Overall, Dedicated Connections ensure that you as the user have a better and faster Cloud experience by providing stable and secure connections to your Cloud provider.

As a developer, you might battle with Internet speeds on a day-to-day basis; switching the router on/off, using a hard-wired connection instead of WiFi and maybe even trying to just figure out the best time of the day to use the Internet for large uploads. A Dedicated Connection would effectively help you resolve some of these issues and make the Cloud work as seamlessly as you think it should.

It’s certainly something you might want to consider!

Cloud Computing Increases Organisational EfficiencyIf you’re a business owner, you probably know the struggles of always trying to get more for your money, optimizing your processes or just trying to be more efficient.

When you’re buying tech or digital assets, it can be tricky to ensure an ROI or use it in a way to increase efficiency. In fact, it could be argued that some tech buys decrease your efficiency at first because no one seems to know how to use it.

But there are ways to make the tech and digital assets you buy work for you, Cloud Computing being one of them:

1) Lower Capital Expenditure

Provisioning Servers

With Cloud Computing, no big investments need to be made in purchasing physical servers, even when new software updates come out. You simply provision servers when you need them, meaning all you Financial Directors out there can breathe a sigh of relief.

Moreover, cloud providers achieve massive economies of scale due to the huge numbers of servers they have. These cost savings are then passed on to you as the customer in the form of higher computing power for less money.

This also allows you to make more efficient use of your budget elsewhere in your organization, reducing waste.

Reduced Infrastructure Costs

Expenditure on infrastructure can be very costly, especially as an organization grows.

In particular, investments need to be made in hardware to ensure that the IT department is able to handle an increased demand. Yet you may not always have the physical space to accommodate more hardware.

Or it may even be the case that your business experiences periodical spikes in server usage i.e. you’ve just started a new project, and so you don’t always need large numbers of servers to be running.

This is where Cloud Computing comes to hand, allowing you to scale up or down the number of servers you use in response to the demands of your business.

This ensures that you only pay for the server capacity you need, reducing waste and saving you a considerable amount of money.

2) Increased Flexibility/Agility

Quick Server Configuration

As the saying goes, time is money and the fact is no one has time. And of course, ordering and setting up servers can be a big waste of time and money, and also reduces productivity.

Using Cloud Services offers the significant advantage of the quick provisioning of servers. This is important when it comes to development and testing, as you need to be able to react to shifts in market demands and the activities of competitors.

This might include bringing your own products to market at a faster pace, and so more virtual servers may be needed to accommodate greater app development and testing.

This can take weeks to do when ordering new servers for delivery to your IT department, but only hours when provisioning virtual servers from your cloud provider.

So remember; Cloud Computing services can help increase the efficiency of your business through:

  • Low Capital Expenditure – no major investments in hardware, simply provision servers when you need them. Can even scale up/down the number of servers your need in response to your businesses demands.

  • Increased Flexibility/Agility – compared to the months taken in-house, provisioning servers through the cloud takes only hours to do.