Tag Archive for: security

4 ways Cloud Computing can change how you do business

While there was once a time when small businesses needed to make significant investments to compete on a global scale. Cloud computing has changed all that. If you’re intrigued by the idea of bringing the cloud to your business, you need to learn the benefits. Now is the time to go explore them.

You’ll reduce your business costs while growing it

Historically, growing your business was expensive because of the need for resource investment. One of the major advantages of cloud technology is that you cut out the costs of hardware. At the same time, you can increase or decrease your IT resources as your business’s demands change.

Being able to decrease your resources means you avoid wasting money on hardware that you don’t later use. Many cloud computing contracts are flexible, too, especially those that come with pay-as-you-go models. As a small business, this allows you to save money on an area that’s usually expensive. With the money you save, you could increase spending elsewhere and scale your organization accordingly.

Disaster recovery comes naturally in Cloud Computing

Imagine a day in your business operations where all your IT resources are lost. Depending on the size of your organization, this could mean a significant reduction in revenue. To add to this, your clients are likely to lose some faith in you and may begin suspecting that you’re unable to protect their data. As a small business, you probably can’t afford to take hits to your reputation.

Disaster recovery has traditionally been a slightly sore point for small businesses. Many have lacked the financial resources required to navigate periods of system downtime. Thanks to cloud computing, disaster recovery now comes naturally. Don’t worry anymore about what you will do if your IT systems fail because everything is stored on a cloud database.

Employees can enjoy remote working

According to Business Insider, 50% of employees will work remotely by 2020 and cloud computing is helping to facilitate the movement. By using the cloud to host your work files and collaborative databases, it’s easy for employees to work at a distance while remaining on the same page as their in-office colleagues.

Remote working can become an advantage to your business in several ways. In addition to reducing overhead, allowing employees to work from home for two days a week or more could boost productivity. Additionally, you can send employees on trips and to conferences while remaining confident that they can access the same files as everyone else with ease.

Security and updates become easier

Running all your software from your office means you’re the person who’s responsible for security and updates. When you fail to keep up with the pace, you allow your system to become vulnerable to viruses and hackers. Once again, data loss is an easy way to lose your clients’ confidence and it can harm your business’s reputation.

In contrast, using cloud computing ensures that all the maintenance takes place without you having to put in the time and effort. Those who provide your cloud server will manage the maintenance for you, which gives you one less task to do. In addition to reducing the likelihood of you forgetting to perform an update, this approach frees up your time for other areas of your business.

Overall, cloud computing reduces costs for small businesses, it increases security, and it prevents reputation-damaging data loss.

Find a professional to learn more about cloud computing today

PCnet cloud professionals can help you secure your cloud and gain peace of mind, all while getting the ROI you want and expect from cloud services. Contact us today to learn more. 

Why use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)?

In the United States and around the world, companies are under more scrutiny than ever before to ensure their data is secure. The threat to businesses is greater than ever before. Malicious agents are going to great lengths to access private company data.

One of the most common ways to do this is to use social engineering to access passwords for companies from their own employees. This involves a number of actions, including phishing, calling in pretending to be a member of the organization, or just finding out enough information to guess the password. It can be incredibly damaging to an organization to have its employees’ passwords leaked.

Well, you may ask, how can I fight this?

Easy! Multi-factor authentication or MFA.

What is Multi-Factor Authentication? Multi-factor authentication is an additional level of security for signing in. It can be added to many popular web applications and office programs. Additionally, you can even have your companies’ computers use them to further protect your business and data. Once you sign in to an application, you must use an MFA application like Duo to verify the sign-in attempt was you.

What are some benefits to this? Let’s explore 5 major benefits your organization can gain from implementing MFA.

1. Peace of mind

The greatest benefit you will gain from using MFA is peace of mind. Knowing that your data is protected is something that all business owners would like. Knowing that your data is safe from outside agents is invaluable.

2. Compliance

The second benefit is compliance with many federal regulations. Many industries, such as healthcare and insurance, have strict guidelines on how to protect data from outside forces. Many companies are audited and adding a service like Duo will give a great first impression of your company. It shows you are serious about security.

3. Cost

The third benefit is cost. What does a data breach cost? According to HIPAAJournal.com, the average cost per record of a data breach was $419 in 2019. 1 Most data breaches don’t just stop at one record though. Think how quickly a thousand records stolen will add up. Many companies simply can’t afford to not implement security measures like MFA. It will save you potentially hundreds of thousands in the long run.

4. MFA is ready to work with almost anything you use

Most modern operating systems and applications support some form of multifactor authentications. Business essential products like Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) tie in with MFA extremely well.

5. It’s easy to use

Adding an extra layer of security is rarely painless, but it is essential. Most employers recognize that there is a cost-benefit analysis that goes into every purchase. One of the big ones is training. If a product takes forever to train on, it may become more trouble than it is worth. Most MFA programs, like Duo, are very painless and simple to use. Simply pull out your phone and press Accept. This will get you right in! Too easy!

Try MFA today

As you can see, MFA is important for organizations, and it is really easy to implement. With the advent of COVID19, many people are seeing that they need to increase security for remote employees. One of the easiest (and best) ways of doing this is implementing multi-factor authentication! Try it out today, you’ll be glad you did!