Data protection in the cloud: what precautions should be taken?

Cloud storage concept

One must first have a complete grasp of what is meant by cloud storage. It is simply archiving, organization, and dissemination of information that is based on different physical disks. The idea behind cloud storage stores data in a realm accessible only to individuals authorized with corresponding permissions.

Advantages of using cloud environments

One of the great advantages is that you don't need to be connected to any internal network. This would be what is called network storage. You also don't need to access any type of data from your own hard drive or from any hardware directly connected to your computer.

Everything is done through specific access for the managers of those specific files and systems. This is precisely why it is so important to take care of data protection in the cloud.

Types of cloud storage

Essentially, there are three categories of cloud storage: public cloud, private cloud and hybrid cloud.

Public cloud storage – These are built based on proprietary hardware and run by a third-party organization. Thus, they are prone to certain risks. A lot of companies employ containers to move workloads and applications between public cloud environments, exactly because of these risks.

Private cloud storage – With systems dedicated to the business that uses the data. Because manually setting up an enterprise-scale private cloud can be less efficient in the long run than using current software, companies use platforms to digitally transform pools of virtual resources into private clouds.

Hybrid cloud storage – This is achieved through a combination of a public and private cloud. They are separate and independent storage systems, but because they are hybrid, migration between the two is facilitated by encrypted application programming interfaces (APIs). Thus, corporations can store critical data in their private cloud, less sensitive data in the public cloud, and when needed they can transfer data between both environments.

Data protection in the cloud

Data protection in the cloud has become a key issue even for companies. Files and systems with sensitive and crucial information are in online environments and managers increasingly feel the need for this security . Among the main tips for maintaining data protection in the cloud are good password management, monitoring the system infrastructure, performing frequent backups, constant testing, among other measures.

Types of data protection

The two main types of cloud data protection are access control and resource monitoring. The difference is that access control is directly related to who can access and manage a specific folder, for example. Resource monitoring is used to identify and block both vulnerabilities and threats. This is an ongoing process that can be automated or performed manually.

What precautions should be taken?

The first major concern is related to management issues . Poor management can have very serious consequences for the company's life. Another mistake is the amount of resources invested in cloud data protection. Nowadays, people still think a lot about saving money, looking for cheaper solutions, and not having advice on this issue. What happens is that what is cheap can often end up being very expensive. It is much better to keep a system protected than to later try to recover important data.

Cloud Storage Myths

This is still a relatively new issue, many people still do not understand the real facts behind it. This is an ideal situation for many myths related to cloud-based data protection to form.. Some examples of these are: cloud environments are more vulnerable, a company is more susceptible to data loss, the provider has access to customer data, the customer cannot define where their data is stored, it is very difficult to migrate between cloud services, cloud environments replace jobs, cloud services are expensive, among others.