5 Tips for Securing Your Cloud Computing System

Sameer Bhatia is founder and CEO of ProProfs, a leading provider of online learning tools for building, testing, and applying knowledge.

As convenient as cloud computing can be for your business, you need to be fully aware of how your system is operating. It must be secure enought to prevent it from being lost, stolen or hacked. Here are a few tips your business can use to ensure the security of data in your cloud system.

1. Make sure the cloud system uses strong data security features.

Your cloud system must be designed to utilize antivirus programs, encryption controls and other features that help protect data. A cloud system and its dedicated servers must also use the right security controls to see that all data moves back and forth as needed without other people being at risk of breaking into the data. A firewall may be added to a cloud server in most cases.

2. Backups must be available as well.

The backup setup that your cloud computing system uses must also be checked. The backup can be set up directly on the cloud computer, but you might have to do it manually. You might want to use your own server or something similar to a portable hard drive or a secondary cloud server to help you out. There's no guarantee that your cloud computing system will have a backup support system, so that will likely be your responsibility.

3. Test your cloud system on occasion.

Testing might sound like a minor issue, but it can make a major difference. In particular, you need to test your cloud to see how well it is performing in conjunction with its security setup. Ethical hackers may be hired to test the security of your cloud system. An ethical hacker, in particular, is a person who is hired to use hacking activities to identify issues within your cloud system or other storage space. The hacker will then provide you with recommendations for taking care of any concerns. This is a popular option for testing as it goes deep into your system to find even the most-hidden problems.

4. Look for redundant storage solutions.

Redundant storage involves adding internal drives to store data, often more than you really require. This helps to keep data duplicated as much as possible. It makes it much harder for your data to be broken into or stolen.

5. Allow your system to use as many data access accounts and permissions as possible.

If every bit of data in your cloud computing system was accessible to everyone in your business, then it would be rather easy for your data to be distributed or even stolen. You need to let your system work with several data access accounts at a time. These include individual accounts that have their own sets of permissions. Having multiple accounts makes it so many bits of data will be protected by having only a select number of people able to access certain parts of your service. This will, in turn, protect your setup.

Never assume that your cloud system is always going to be safe. Always look to see that it is meeting the right standards to ensure that data is protected. By doing so, you can prevent your data from potential losses in the future and ensure that it can still be accessed in a variety of spaces.

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