Cloud Provider’s Security and Its Effects to the CIO of Today

It is expected for CIOs to exude greater leadership now more than ever.  The rate as to which a business expands as a result of competition and new technologies is unprecedented. This is the reason why tech companies are being required to put more focus on those investments which can ensure a more sustainable competitive advantage.

However, all this workload is designated to the CIO who is not just expected to have greater awareness of the business for they also need to have the ability to manage any incoming threats of cloud security because of the continuous increase of spyware and malware attacks. Among the problem areas they are expected to deal with is the range of security vulnerabilities of a cloud provider itself.

Although most cloud providers offer robust security systems for their services, there are some that are not too particular and often leave the issue of cloud security on the hands of their clients. While there are available cloud security solutions, there is a significant risk that sensitive corporate data will be subject to theft or corruption. The result is that CIOs get burdened with the responsibility of bringing more to the table or facing the increasing pressure of being fired from their jobs.

How Can a Cloud Provider Pose Security Issues?

Companies or specifically CIOs can gain lots of control over the security mechanism of the organization to keep cloud security risks at bay. With measures ranging from multifactor authentication systems to access privilege rights, CIOs can ensure that the company’s intra level IT corporate security remains effective and robust enough for countering if not minimizing the threats of malware attacks and resilient spyware.

But, if there are vulnerabilities in the cloud security of the cloud provider, the company will have less control of the counter measures for managing security risks, making it prone to attacks by cybercriminals or hackers. The provider’s offered cloud security can vary based on the number of clients in its network, its experience, as well as the extent to which it adheres to regulatory requirement.

What is Its Effect to the CIO’s Role?

When there are more cloud security threats, the CIO also has to come up with more governance mechanisms and policies for effective management of cloud security. Taking into consideration the cloud computing applications, CIOs are expected not just to be knowledgeable about IT infrastructure and architecture, and networks but also to have the ability of fusing IT experience and being familiar with other disciplines such as operations, HR, marketing, and finance.

It is because there is no doubt that cloud computing is now a de facto pillar to efficiently and cost-effectively operate businesses. This makes it the focal point through which the rest of the functions must be managed. It is expected that the CIO will say yes to all new opportunities which can be properly used for leveraging positive corporate results while being thorough and stringent enough for countering IT security threats.

The Bottom Line

It has become more and more important for today’s CIOs to be familiar with the latest security threats. They are assigned to oversee every aspect of cloud computing platform to guarantee that corporations have more chances of keeping these security threats at bay, especially those that come from a cloud provider. 

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What are the Top Considerations to Remember when Looking for a Cloud Provider?

If you are going to look around you will discover that there are actually many different kinds of Cloud services available on the market today. But even when these services vary from one another, rest assured that all of them come from one source which is widely known as a Cloud Service Provider (CSP) or simply Cloud provider. Like the services offered, CSPs also come in great abundance too. This makes it hard, difficult and tricky for you especially when you are in search for the one that you can hire for your Cloud-based business operations.

The following are some important characteristics or attributes that you must consider when looking for a CSP that can provide you with quality Cloud computing services:

•         The service company must have a good reputation. You have to take note that not all service providers or CSPs are created the same. While there are CSPs that you can count on, there are also those that you cannot. Included on the list that you should get rid of are those that have a poor or ad reputation. Evidently, the one with a good reputation should be in your priority list. In order to determine the reputation of a particular CSP you need consider the following: read through the profile or profile of the provider, read reviews and testimonials about the provider or simply ask people around who knew about the CSP you are eying on.

•          In order to be considered as a reliable service provider, the company should be willing enough to allow users to try and make use of the Cloud computing services free of charge. Yes, we are simply referring to a free trial offer. With this kind of offer you will be able to gauge the power and strength of the services. It’s also something that allows you to quickly and thoroughly decide whether or not the services you have tried are a feasible option for you and your business.

•          Look at the physical attributes of the Cloud provider. In most cases it is much easier to determine the reputation of the service provider and the quality of its services by simply looking at its physical aspects or attributes. Thus, you should consider visiting the website of the provider and browse through its pages. If everything seems to be fine then you can be certain that what you are actually visiting is a potential find that can provide you with quality Cloud computing services.

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The Key Advantages of Working with a Cloud Provider

If you are running an online business then you have to know the fact that you are actually running an organization on information. Without the use of comprehensive business solutions, your business can become susceptible to threats, costly downtime and data loss. Prior to such realities, it is important that you should be able to find and use the right kind of business solution that can help in combatting and controlling such potential problems. The use of Cloud services is deemed to be one of the best business solutions that help in the enhancement of business operations today devoid of security threats, costly downtime and data loss.

But before you can get in the way to make use of Cloud services, the first thing that you need to do is to find the source. When it comes to the entity that provides Cloud services, a Cloud provider is what you actually need to be looking out for. Finding one is easy nowadays because such providers are now scattered in great abundance on the current market. And once you have successfully found a good one, this will then give you the opportunity to have the following benefits that you can surely make use of for your advantage:

Allows You to Save

One of the good reasons why Cloud services are a great pick for a business is the fact that they allow you to make huge savings along the way. How? Your provider allows you to pick from its subscription package list so that you can choose the one that suits your budget best. By constantly saving, there is something that you can make use of to enhance all the other aspects or areas of your business.

Use Future-Proofed Technologies

The technologies used by your provider to handle and manage your business organization are not only of the best of breed type but future-proofed as well. This is something that gives you the assurance of playing quite well in your market even when things get tough and rough.

Customized and Integrated Services

Your Cloud provider can customize the services and integrate them with your existing business policies and practices. This is something that works effectively, making your business even more competent along with other competing businesses on the market today.

Enhanced Mobility

With Cloud services, you can have the power to enhance your mobility. In short, you can have the ability to from any place at any time of the day.

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How to Find a Cloud Provider

Instead of developing their own cloud solutions, many smaller IT solution providers choose to work with cloud service vendors to provide customers with various services. There are a lot of cloud providers today, making it difficult to choose the best one among them. Choosing the wrong provider is a waste of time, money and effort. Here are some tips on how to find the right cloud provider.

Availability and Security

Ask the vendor how they monitor and manage security issues, conduct maintenance updates and install patches. Make sure that it matches your expected level of service or security. It is important that you ask them about where they host data. Do they use a dedicated or shared environment? How many servers are they using? What disaster recovery processes do they have? You should also ask if the infrastructure is 100% redundant and mirrored. 

Sales Process

If the company representative takes time to evaluate and understand your business needs, it is possible that everyone in the entire company has the same attitude. You have to make sure that the vendor really pays attention to your needs and doesn’t only intend to sell. After-sale support can tell a lot about the professionalism, quality and seriousness of the vendor’s processes.

Integration

Don’t forget to ask the vendor how their solution integrates with your existing IT environment.  You should also learn more about their game plan and track record of integrating their solution with other on-premise solutions you’ve previously installed. Ask about their contingency plan and the guarantees they provide.

Pricing

What is the vendor’s pricing and billing structure? The majority of cloud providers set up billing as a monthly item. Do you have to sign a contract and will it renew automatically? If the price is very cheap, you should be suspicious. Are you required to meet a minimum number of users in order to get a good price? Can you cancel anytime without paying any hidden fees? 

Uptime Metrics

You need to know how the cloud provider measures uptime and delivers reports. Determine how they communicate everything to customers like server reliability, delivery and hosting. How do they handle major outages? How do they usually communicate with clients? Is it through email, SMS, chat or phone? It is also important to determine if the cloud provider is proactively reactive or proactive when an issue occurs.

Cloud Compatible

Some applications are not cloud compatible. Internet bandwidth problems may also hinder the app’s performance. Having a high-performance hosted app server isn’t enough if the internet bandwidth limitations deliver a poor user experience. Application portability is another factor to consider. Moving an app server to the cloud might be easy, but the app might have other requirements that make the move harder. Older apps may not be cloud compatible as well. Check with the cloud provider about the cloud compatibility of the app.

You need to determine if moving to the cloud fits in your current IT roadmap. Whether you want to attract the best talents, use technology that boosts your business performance and productivity or grow your client base, you need to find the cloud provider that meets your exact needs. 

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Cloud Provider: Follow these 5 Simple Steps to Find a Good CSP

A Cloud service provider, Cloud provider or CSP is an entity that one should be looking out for when looking forward to using Cloud services. These providers are easily found because they often come with a Cloud presence. While these providers abound on the current market, finding a good one can be like finding a needle in a stock of hay. So, in order to help you come up with a good one, you need to follow these five simple steps.

·         Decide on what particular method to use for your search. To make your search task quicker, the use of the internet is highly advised. By simply using the power of the internet you can find what you are exactly looking for the fast and convenient way possible. Online searching is also very effective in a way that it allows you to find information about almost everything under the sun and that includes a good and reliable Cloud service provider.

·         Think of the right word or set of words to be used as your keywords. Remember that using right and proper keywords when searching online is paramount because it is through these words in which the search engine can provide you with potential results. For example, your keyword should look like any of these: best CSP, good Cloud service provider, reliable CSP, trusted Cloud service provider and so on.

·         Once you have entered the keywords, the search engine will ten process your inquiry. After which, it will then provide you with a list of potential options. The list can be very overwhelming as they come in great abundance. To avoid confusion, you should be able to simplify your choices by making your shortlist. Here, you should be choosing at least five from the first page and proceed to the fourth step.

·         Take the time to click and visit the websites of the initial choices you have picked. From each website, you should be able to gather as much information as possible. Put what you have gathered on your notepad. Basing from the information you have gathered from each site, you should take the time compare one after another.

·         Lastly, you need to eliminate the ones that need to be removed from the list. This is the easiest part because it makes you closer to what you are exactly looking for – the best Cloud provider that you can count and rely on in many ways.

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Role of Cloud Provider in Public Cloud Strategy

In the past, the concept of putting mission-critical data and applications in public cloud was something business leaders scoffed at. Nowadays, hyper-scale computing resources from Microsoft and Amazon are becoming popular.

At first, there’s some skepticism as to what the increasing popularity of public cloud could mean for the business model of IT service provider. Besides, one of the roles they have played in previous years is managing the infrastructure for the clients that do not have the skills, resources, and time to manage this in-house. However, just as the deployment of cloud has evolved, with the new service offerings as well as new ways to help clients take advantage of all cloud has to offer, regardless of what cloud they choose.

Below are some of the examples of the kinds of services being offered by a cloud provider for clients who want to deploy data and applications in the cloud:

• Integration Between Clouds

Most of the clients operate in hybrid IT environment, which deploys some assets in public cloud and several assets in the hosted private cloud or in the colocation environment in the TierPoint data center. Cloud service providers help their clients integrate applications and data while maintaining the security level, availability and performance of the resources needed for mission critical apps no matter where the infrastructure resides.

• Cloud Migration Strategies

Projects on IT transformation are frequently described as working on airplane’s engine while in flight. Meeting performance objectives and managing risk simultaneously needs airtight strategy. The professional service team members can be asked to work with the migration strategy and planning team of the client, particularly for the organizations that manage high risk data sets or little experience with cloud. Although you plan managing your cloud-based deployments, you can start off on the right foot with the migration strategy, which reduces your risk and disruptions to businesses.

• Cost Management and Performance

If you are like other clients, the ability to lower and restructure the costs in several areas is one of the things that’s attractive you to the cloud. Nevertheless, you should still prioritize performance. Cloud providers can help their clients make correct initial choices given their performance needs and monitor their performance as their computing requirements and available technology change.

• Security

Azure and AWS provide state-of-the-art features for security, yet even those industry-leading vendors are fast to point out that their clients should do their part. For example, Amazon refers to shared security model where they’re responsible for the security of cloud and their customers are responsible for security in cloud. Cloud providers can help you determine what it means and ensure that your bases are covered no matter where your applications and data reside.

• System Management

A lot of vendors release scheduled updates every month and patches whenever vulnerability is discovered. Applying such updates automatically could cause challenges for several organizations, yet more often than not, the patch management is seen as something that could be put off. It’s risky and such vulnerabilities are discovered when somebody tries taking advantage of them. Cloud providers work with the clients to manage the system updates in a way that’s least disruptive to businesses.

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Things to Look For When You Hire a Cloud Provider

You have surely heard about all the benefits that you can get from the cloud, and hiring a cloud provider at that. It can help enhance productivity through anywhere and anytime access to applications and files. This can also improve business continuity through offsite storage of essential data, as well as being able to guarantee protection because of different security measures.

Having said all of these, does it mean that all the cloud provider companies that you can find out there will be able to help you in achieving all these exciting benefits?

Well, the answer is sadly a big NO.

This is because not all cloud providers have been made equal. Some of them are only good at making promises and will rob you of your money. But then, there are also those that will do things efficiently without any need for you to break the bank.

For this reason, it is a must to ensure that you know exactly what to look for before you hire any cloud provider.

If you are thinking about hiring a cloud provider, it is absolutely fundamental to make sure that you know the things you have to check and look for before you make a choice and sign any contract. If you don’t, there’s a possibility that you will find yourself stuck in bad situation, like losing ownership of your important data, or not gaining any access to them for a long period of time.

When you hire a cloud provider or cloud consulting company, you have to ensure that they are truly focused on assisting you in leveraging the best and most appropriate cloud solution which offers the following:

• Uptime guarantee – See to it that there will be an uptime guarantee to as much as 99.9 percent or you to ensure that you can gain access to all of your files at virtually any time. Or else, you might be left with the files in the cloud that can hinder you from doing any work.
• File encryption – If you store sensitive data, like company, employee, or customer information make sure that everything is encrypted before you leave your servers in the data center and on its way to the data center.
• Responsive support – When you are experiencing a problem with the cloud, you will definitely need a responsive and quick support, preferably available round the clock to guarantee that you will always be able to access all of your applications and data.
• Flexible offering – If the cloud provider doesn’t offer any form of flexibility, they are not the best cloud provider that you can work with. Don’t forget that your needs constantly evolve, and even if a specific amount of storage works perfectly well for you right now, there is a chance that it will be changing in the near future.

If you want to get the best cloud solutions, make sure that you choose only the best cloud provider to suit your needs and budget.

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