Issues around security, data protection and business continuity have historically been seen as critically important. However, they have not always been prioritised by expanding businesses who see establishing a strong position in their chosen marketplace as a more urgent concern.
Failing to counter these threats has never been a viable option for these organisations. This is even more true given the current environment where their importance has been highlighted by the advent of GDPR and the recent growth in the cybersecurity threats facing organisations, including ransomware and cryptomining.
Jamie Coombs, Group Professional Services Manager at Altodigital discusses the issues of network security and data protection, looking at ways that companies can use the latest technology to tick all three boxes for security, GDPR compliance and affordability.
Data Protection is Key
What these issues have in common, of course, is they all underline the need for businesses to better protect the data they hold. In the case of GDPR, it is typically other people’s data that is the key focus. Even today, many organisations are still ignoring it and hoping it will go away. Unfortunately, it won’t. Organisations need to have a best practice culture in place when it comes to managing and protecting the personally identifiable information they hold. A significant part of that will come down to the processes and procedures that the organisation itself puts in place to ensure that data is protected, but technology can and should play a key protecting role.
Network security is clearly one of the most important areas any business is likely to face today. As well as the obvious extreme case disasters that can affect the business there are also more ‘run of the mill’ every day occurrences that can leave an organisation’s business data at risk of being inaccessible for a long period of time, and in the worst cases, forever. System malfunction, employee misconduct or external threats can all cause a security breach. Spam-based attacks and threats from hackers are evolving and becoming more sophisticated all the time.
Closely linked to disaster recovery is the whole area of business continuity. Unforeseen disasters can, after all, have serious consequences for any business and their staff. That’s why it is important for every organisation to have in place a continuity programme that allows their employees to continue working whatever the circumstances. Any loss of productivity can impact immediately, and, depending on its seriousness, could even put the future trading of the organisation at risk.
Finding a Way Forward
Senior management are focused on the core business, they often have little funds spare to spend on anything other than their strategic goals and they typically will lack the necessary resources to even consider managing IT in-house.
Businesses need to weigh these benefits up against the risks of not doing anything or trying to manage the IT process themselves and then falling short of the mark. Fortunately, there is an alternative. By pursuing an IT managed services approach, companies can employ a ‘win, win’ strategy – finding a suitable, affordable solution for all their data security and integrity, GDPR compliance, business continuity needs. It’s a compelling proposition and for many growing businesses today, an approach whose benefits are too attractive to ignore.
