Biggest cybersecurity mistakes businesses make

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WannaCry attacks in June and NotPetya breaches this month serve as stark reminders that cyberattacks are still a very real threat and that businesses must protect themselves. The Black Hat Attendee Survey found that a majority of professionals believe that they will have to respond to a major breach of critical U.S. infrastructure within the next two years. However, are these organizations and other companies ready to face damaging breach events? Let's take a look at some of the biggest cybersecurity mistakes that business make:

1. Trusting your employees

Human error is the single largest cause of security breaches, network infections and data loss. While your employees might be reputable individuals, that won't prevent them from falling victim to a phishing attack or other malicious downloads. Harvard Business Review contributor Marc van Zadelhoff noted that misaddressed emails, stolen devices and confidential data sent to insecure systems are all very costly mistakes that well-meaning insiders can make. Hackers are even adept at leveraging stolen credentials to increase their access within a network to steal sensitive information.

"Understanding the users who hold the potential for greatest damage is critical," van Zadelhoff wrote. "Addressing the security risks that these people represent, and the critical assets they access, should be a priority. In particular, monitor IT admins, top executives, key vendors, and at-risk employees with greater vigilance.

Human error is the biggest cause of data breaches.Human error is the biggest cause of data breaches.

The biggest issue here is that infiltration techniques are becoming so sophisticated, they look legitimate and can fly under the radar of some security tools. To reduce the risk of human error, it's essential to go back to the basics, with comprehensive training for safe internet use practices. Educating employees will raise awareness and be a major step toward reducing the potential threat surface. Leaders should also enforce company use policies and establishing proper technology use protocols when working at the office and remotely.

2. Having faith in the technology

Technology exists to solve specific sets of problems, but relying on it too much might be your downfall. Failures can cost time, money, productivity as well as the trust of partners, customers and employees. It's important to setup the right solutions and create policies to guide staff through worst case scenarios. Dark Reading contributor Roman Foeckl noted that using just an antivirus and a firewall is not enough to secure data anymore. Threats have significantly evolved and are continuing to advance at a rapid rate. It's within your best interest to update your security systems to ensure it's maintained correctly and will address the newest threats.

Establish procedures around data loss prevention and test them on a regular basis. Ensure that you can recover quickly and that you have a plan B instated in case your critical assets fail. This will help ensure that your policies are effective and that the data will be protected appropriately. Staff members should also have the necessary knowledge and support to use the technology effectively and mitigate potential risks.

"Unencrypted devices create a massive problem as anyone could gain access to sensitive information."

3. Ignoring the basics

While many organizations are focusing on establishing sophisticated cybersecurity structures, it's important to start with the basics. For example, organizations might not encrypt their laptops or business cellphones. Unencrypted devices create a massive problem as anyone could gain access to sensitive information and business resources, the National Federation of Independent Business stated. Measures should be in place to scramble data in case someone without the encryption password tries enter a lost or stolen device.

Some companies also don't have strict password enforcement. Employees might use a simple password or could leverage the same password across multiple channels. These situations make it easier for hackers to get into sensitive systems and other accounts. Leaders must also ensure that any access credentials for departing employees are changed immediately. This will prevent any malicious intent and narrow the potential threat landscape. Create policies around remote wipe capabilities and what processes must be observed following a worker's exit. 

Cybersecurity is a complex pursuit, but necessary to keep businesses and their data safe. At ISG Technology, we have the expertise and means to restore your trust in your network and your technology partner. For more information on avoiding cybersecurity mistakes, contact us today.

4 tools to implement in your cybersecurity strategy

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In Partnership with Cisco Systems, Inc.

Digital threats pose major risks to nearly every company across all industries. Businesses can no longer afford to ignore cybersecurity, particularly as the costs associated with lost data, downtime and reputational damage continue to rise. Regulated sectors like finance and healthcare are under even more scrutiny when it comes to protecting sensitive data and ensuring optimal performance.

Rather than taking a reactive approach and waiting for disaster to strike, organizations should act now to ensure they are prepared. Setting up necessary tools and processes will give employees the resources they need to approach the situation appropriately. With all of the available options, it can be difficult to know where to start with your cybersecurity efforts. Let’s take a look at four of the main tools that you should implement in your cybersecurity strategy:

1. Endpoint protection

In traditional office setups, endpoints might include desktops, phones and the printer, all connected and active within your network. While these relics are still within many businesses, employees are increasingly using other hardware as well to get more done and improve their efficiency. Mobile devices like laptops, tablets and smartphones are now common fixtures in the workplace and can bring a number of benefits, provided they are protected appropriately.

Endpoint protection aims to cover this widening surface area of possible attack points within enterprises. Your Daily Tech contributor Daniel Morton noted that endpoint protection accounts for malware that doesn’t involve viruses, making it more capable of detecting diverse malware strains than traditional antivirus products. As this technology continues to advance, it will be able to monitor software in real time and pinpoint situations that are most likely to be the site of attack. This is a significant step over legacy solutions and will put your organization on the best footing to secure your hardware.

Endpoint protection will be essential to limiting the attack surface.Endpoint protection will be essential to limiting the attack surface.

2. Intrusion detection

Hackers leverage a number of common attack tools to breach business networks and compromise information. Understanding these tools as they evolve will be critical to stopping malicious parties in their tracks. Dark Reading associate editor Kelly Sheridan noted that intrusion detection strategies can create situations where attackers expose themselves as a result of their reliance on common hacking techniques. Active intrusion detection and prevention effectively looks for threats and stops them before they cause any damage.

Organizations cannot afford to be passive with their intrusion detection systems. If the solution identifies any intruders, it will send notifications for organizations to act upon. It will be important for IT professionals to respond quickly to any issue and close vulnerabilities.

“Monitoring and management systems drive proactive security models.”

3. Monitoring and management

Monitoring behavior and managing risk will be an important piece of your cybersecurity strategy, as they highlight unusual activity and deliver actionable insights. However, organizations cannot simply implement these tools and then forget about them. System monitoring and risk management are continuous efforts that must be supported. Tripwire contributor Theresa Wood noted that businesses can facilitate long-term compliance continuity and reduce annual audit overhead with these solutions. Monitoring and management systems drive proactive security models, providing truly immediate detection and response in the event of an attack. These types of capabilities will be absolutely essential to improving business cybersecurity.

4. Content filtering

A large number of security breaches occur due to employee actions. Clicking on a seemingly viable link or ad can end up downloading malicious programs onto workstations and compromising sensitive information. With this major vulnerability, organizations not only have to train staff members, but also implement content filtering tools. TechTarget contributor Margaret Rouse noted that content filtering screens and excludes objectionable web pages or emails from being accessed. This can include eliminating emails that contain malicious links or redirecting a user away from a risky site. This tool will give employers peace of mind that their workers are engaging in safe web surfing practices while limiting overall risk.

Cybersecurity is becoming more complex as technology and attacker techniques advance. Organizations can leverage content filtering, monitoring and management, endpoint protection and intrusion detection tools to step up their protection capabilities. Teaming up with a managed service provider like ISG will help alleviate the pressures and security concerns that come along with managing your own network. For more information on how ISG can implement the best solutions for your protection needs, schedule a free consultation today.

 

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How to create a successful data management strategy

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Data is king for today's businesses to yield actionable insights and drive educated decisions. Organizations actively collect and analyze information to improve their offerings, better serve customers and identify trends that they might be able to capitalize on. With more data being generated than ever before, it's important for company leaders to develop a clear plan detailing how information will be handled. Here are a few tips to help you create a successful data management strategy:

1. Map your data

First of all, it's important to know exactly what information you have within your infrastructure. Data comes from a multitude of different sources and can come in a variety of forms like files, videos, photos and more. It will be important to understand not only how to make effective use of these types of data, but also how to protect them. Accenture noted that data mapping will help leaders look at major end processes to understand how data is used and trace it back to the source. This process will enable your organization to better acquire, manage and protect information.

Mapping your data will help determine how to store and protect it.Mapping your data will help determine how to store and protect it.

Data mapping can also drive critical decisions, such as how data should be stored and what control processes should be in place. Organizations can more easily identify potential risk indicators to ensure compliance and adhere to data management policies. With this information, leaders can provide the appropriate access and transparency while effectively protecting data from unauthorized individuals.

2. Determine data retention periods

Some pieces of information are useable for a short period of time, while others must be kept. Data about a client's transaction behaviors, for example, must be stored to help serve that customer and quickly troubleshoot any potential issues. Industry regulations might also dictate how long certain information must be stored, such as patient files.

However, it's going to be impossible to keep up with all of these retention requirements by legacy or manual processes. Information Age noted that by automating data management, the process works effectively and is free from human error. This way, users can set retention periods and entrust it to system automation.

"Consistent data refresh will help create more inquiries and leads than those with poor data hygiene."

3. Maintain data continuously

Information may change over time, and it's important that these adjustments are reflected in your own data repositories. Dun & Bradstreet noted that inaccurate data wastes resources and degrades marketing campaign performance. By appending high-quality data to incorrect records, you can better target buyers and influence sales. Data management services can deliver ongoing maintenance to ensure that your records don't become stale. Consistent data refresh will help create more inquiries and leads than those with poor data hygiene.

Organizations are beginning to use data for a variety of functions, including better serving customers and improving their own capabilities. By continuously maintaining data, determining retention periods and creating a data map, you will be able to create a successful data management strategy. For more information on how to manage your data effectively, contact ISG today.

Top things to consider in a colocation site

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More data is being generated, collected and analyzed than ever before. Data storage options are also becoming major centerpieces for business continuity and disaster recovery strategies. As time progresses, it will be significantly more difficult for in-house IT to manage it all. Colocation has become an answer for organizations to achieve security, easy access and ample data storage alongside optimal uptime levels. Let's take a look at the top considerations in a colocation site:

1. Location

Where you decide to colocate is a major decision. Kansas City Business Journal contributor Dan Kurtz suggested choosing a facility close to your company's headquarters or near the majority of your employees. Having a colo facility in close proximity allows leaders to go check on their systems and manage them appropriately. It will also help provide the connectivity and latency that users require. The facility should also be in a place that is protected from severe weather events and disperses water away. Details like these will enable organizations to avoid disaster and drive continuous operations.

The facility's location could impact your decision.The facility's location could impact your decision.

2. Security

Your colocation site should give you peace of mind that your data is protected. Data Center Journal noted that there should be multiple levels of security externally as well as internally. This could include monitoring systems, physical barriers and layered security zones. Keycard access, staffed checkpoints and alarm systems should all be standard features. Guards can constantly monitor visitor access and ensure that no unauthorized personnel are able to access your hardware or data. Ask what types of safeguards are in place as well as what Tier compliance the site has. These considerations could make a big difference in where you decide to colocate and what vendor you choose.

"Compare vendor prices to quote comparable facilities and support services."

3. Pricing

The cost associated with colocation services can be a major factor in your decision. TechTarget contributor Julius Neudorfer noted that while this shouldn't be the crux of your choice, you should compare vendor prices to quote comparable facilities and support services. The amount of power and cooling required will play a big part in your price, and each provider will have its own formula for supplying these utilities. Carefully consider your options based on the solutions provided, history of success and industry costs. These factors will help narrow down your options to the best colocation facility for your requirements.

As data becomes more of a priority for businesses, it will be important to store, manage and protect this asset effectively. It's often time-consuming and expensive to build and manage a data center on your own, but with colocation, you can have a data center without all the cost. The facility itself is governed by the provider, while you maintain your hardware. It will be important to look at the facility's location, security capabilities and service pricing compared to other vendors to guide you to the best solution. For more information on choosing a colocation site, contact ISG today.

Staying on top of the malware, known as Wanna, Wannacry, or Wcry

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Over the weekend, you may have seen the headlines about a large ransomware worm bouncing from computer to computer across the world. In response to this, we wanted to keep our valued customers and partners informed about the situation. Below you’ll find a handful of resources to help you understand the situation as well as practical advice on how to address it.

An overview of the situation
This article provides a great recap of what is going on with the the malware, known as Wanna, Wannacry, or Wcry:

An NSA-derived ransomware worm is shutting down computers worldwide

What is a worm?
A worm is a piece of code that replicates without human activity, so it is especially dangerous.

What can you do?
While the best time to patch all your various Windows systems was March for this bug. The second best time to patch is now. Additionally, shutting down SMBv1 on Windows servers limits the damage. The command line for doing just that can be found here:

C:\> dism /online /norestart /disable-feature /featurename:SMB1Protocol
https://twitter.com/wincmdfu/status/863820196825387008


Get proactive
All of our managed IT services packages include network monitoring and patching and updating, so you don’t have to spend time worrying whether or not you’re up to date.

Stay tuned
As we encounter more resources that will help you troubleshoot any issues, we will share them in the comments below.

Thank you,
Your friends at ISG Technology

3 strategies to bolster your BYOD policy

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Mobile devices have earned their place in business operations as a necessary tool for productivity and employee satisfaction. In fact, IDC predicted that there will be 105.4 million mobile workers by 2020, two-thirds of whom are expected to be remote staff members. Many organizations have adopted bring-your-own-device policies as a result of these estimations, but these plans don't always follow best practices. There are three main strategies you can use to bolster your BYOD policy:

1. Create a detailed plan

A BYOD policy must be very specific and detailed, with rules regarding what devices are allowed, how they can be used and security best practices. Forbes contributor Larry Alton suggested collaborating with the IT team to establish necessary rules while still leaving room for flexibility. Managers must be consistent in the implementation of new standards and BYOD enforcement to ensure that staff are following the guidelines. Post hard copies of the formalized BYOD plan and make it easily accessible. This way, users will better understand expectations concerning data and device usage and how the policy will be managed.

A BYOD policy must detail data security expectations.A BYOD policy must detail data security expectations.

2. Educate employees on best practices

People use mobile devices for a variety of purposes, and each application has rights to access certain information on the device. Organizations must ensure that personal applications don't have the authorization to gather sensitive business data and that workers understand the implications of these situations. It will be important to educate employees on best practices to stay secure and mitigate shadow IT cases.

More phishing attacks are emerging geared toward targeting mobile devices and unsuspecting users. Malicious applications are also becoming more of a prevalent problem, leading to compromised information, data loss and other significant consequences. BetaNews noted that teaching employees how to identify a phishing message and being hyper aware of email abnormalities can reduce risk and better protect their devices.

"CYOD and COPE provide organization control while still ensuring employee flexibility."

3. Implement a hybrid approach

Many organizations are still hesitant to fully adopt or implement BYOD policies due to security concerns and management issues. However, there are a number of alternative approaches that support mobile devices in a way that is safe for business use. Using choose your own device or corporate-owned, personally enabled plans could be the best compromise for company and mobile device needs.

CYOD and COPE are becoming more popular business strategies, particularly among highly regulated industries. Infosecurity Magazine contributor Adrian Dain noted that by using these plans, organizations can effectively manage the device while it accesses company material and can easily wipe the hardware if it's lost or stolen. Employees would still get the flexibility they expect by choosing a device they prefer and being able to operate remotely.

BYOD plans are becoming more essential as the mobile workforce increases. By educating employees, creating a detailed plan and implementing a hybridized approach, organizations can bolster their BYOD strategy. For more information on how to implement and utilize mobile technology effectively in your business, contact ISG today.

Security considerations when choosing a colocation provider

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Servers are hosting more critical business assets and processes than ever before. However, maintaining and supporting this equipment isn't feasible for a number of organizations due to expense and lack of expertise. Choosing a data center colocation provider can bring a variety of benefits like cost savings and better access to the latest tools. When evaluating your data center colocation provider options, there are a number of security considerations that should be kept in mind:

"Verify that the vendor adheres to compliance standards for your particular industry."

1. Regulation compliance

The biggest thing for any business is to verify that the vendor adheres to compliance standards for your particular industry. Health care institutions must follow HIPAA rules, and most organizations observe PCI DSS regulations, for example. The colocation provider should understand the data protection guidelines associated with these statutes and actively keep up with regulation changes.

Most organizations won't be able to achieve the same level of security as an experienced colocation provider. The Data Center Journal contributor Chris Alberding noted that providers have the necessary resources to constantly evaluate their facilities for vulnerabilities and update technology quickly. These capabilities help protect valuable IT assets and mitigate potential risk while ensuring compliance needs are met.

2. Cyber capabilities

Attacks on organizations are becoming far more sophisticated. Security tools and threat methods are in a constant power struggle to overcome one another. It will be critical for you to assess your colocation provider's cyber strategy to ensure compliance and protect sensitive information in the wake of advancing attacks. In an interview with Data Center Knowledge, industry expert Jason Cook suggested guaranteeing that obvious vulnerabilities are addressed and performing random spot-checks to identify security holes.

Colocation providers must have the latest monitoring tools to constantly watch network activity and quickly recognize unusual behavior. These systems will notify essential parties of the issue to drive faster response times and minimize potential damage. This type of insight can be used for auditing purposes and to improve cybersecurity strategies. Look for a provider with a history of detecting and stopping attacks quickly. Top-tier vendors will offer 24/7/365 monitoring and support for your critical assets to ensure that threats are navigated effectively.

Physical security will be essential for protecting data cages.Physical security will be essential for protecting data cages.

3. Physical security

On-site physical security is just as important as cyber protection. If a random individual is able to walk into a data center, particularly in unauthorized areas, this represents a big problem for potential clients. Random spot checks on these locations can reveal how close a malicious individual can get, and guide actions that must be taken to remedy this situation.

Organizations should ask what types of physical security tools are being used to protect their data cages. A CenturyLink Business white paper noted that colocation providers should use current solutions like card readers, video monitors and biometric scanners to bolster physical security. Staffing the center with 24/7 trained security personnel will serve as an extra layer of protection to deter malicious access. Providers should keep stringent digital records of everyone who enters the data center. This will make it easier to identify abnormal behaviors and track down potential suspects.

Going with a colocation provider brings a number of benefits, but it will be essential to ensure that the vendor utilizes effective security measures. When choosing a colocation provider, ask about physical and cybersecurity measures as well as what compliance regulations they adhere to. Look for a vendor that has certifications and a history of serving other organizations in your industry. These attributes could help narrow down your options and find the best choice for your company. For more information on how colocation and managed services can benefit your business, contact ISG today.

Benefits your organization can reap from ITaaS

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Managing technology assets and processes internally can be a major strain on budget, time and skill constraints. While there are certain governance and security capabilities that are afforded from on-premise support, these don’t make up for the rising costs of maintenance and provisioning of legacy tools. To overcome these difficulties, organizations should look to team up with a vendor that provides IT-as-a-Service. By implementing ITaaS in your business, there are a number of benefits that you can expect to reap:

1. Reduced expenses

As noted before, supporting and maintaining legacy equipment, particularly in-house, can quickly become very costly. These assets need specific parts or expert evaluations to run effectively, which can impact your budget. If you want to start a new initiative, you have to invest in the right hardware, software and personnel to run it, adding onto your expenses. With tightening financial goals, running everything on-premise is simply no longer feasible or valuable.

ITaaS can help organizations save money. ITaaS can help organizations save money.

An ITaaS provider houses, configures, manages and supports everything for you. This means that you won’t have to place significant investments into new hardware or software solutions. IT Brief contributor Shannon Williams noted that an ITaaS provider can use standardized products to help organizations understand demand and costs more clearly. This will enable businesses to effectively plan their next move and accurately estimate their budget.

2. Better alignment with business goals

Over time, it can be easy for IT operations to be encumbered with numerous solutions that are no longer valuable or don’t fully align with business goals. However, it can be difficult for in-house IT members to recognize this or take action due to dependencies and lack of full visibility. As a result, the chief information officer might create scattered initiatives that are disconnected from business strategy. Organizations must have a clear view into what services are active and how each one is performing.

Pursuing ITaaS, organizations will be able to focus more on core business and innovation efforts. As CIO noted, ITaaS capabilities remove the hassles of managing IT systems while enabling organizations to concentrate more on revenue generation and other initiatives. It will be important not to fall into the traps of marketing hype and instead look to establish effective answer to competitive questions.

Once you have the IT infrastructure you need, you must develop a holistic approach to meet competitive challenges and use the technology to your advantage to improve service quality. This could mean something as small as providing consumers with a feedback system or implementing a customer resource management portal to keep information on each client. This will help improve the experience and can be provisioned by the ITaaS vendor.

“An ITaaS partner can easily provision and implement trending solutions.”

3. Leverage quality solutions

An organization might not have the expertise or resources necessary to build, maintain and support the latest technology offerings on its own. This means that there could be services that aren’t being utilized to their fullest extent. However, an ITaaS partner can easily provision and implement trending solutions for early adoption and long-term benefits. For example, According to McKinsey’s ITaaS Cloud Survey, enterprises are planning to reduce on-premise traditional and virtualized environments. Adoption of dedicated private cloud, virtual private cloud and public IaaS are all expected to increase by 2018. With an ITaaS vendor, organizations can take advantage of these trends and gain quality service.

As new technology emerges and becomes more complex, partnering with an ITaaS vendor can provide significant benefits. Businesses will be able to leverage quality solutions, save costs and better align their technology initiatives with overall goals. Contact a managed service provider like ISG today to see how ITaaS can benefit your organization.

How the cloud speeds up the disaster recovery process

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If a critical system goes down or your data is lost, how long would it take your organization to restore operations? For many businesses, it will come down to what disaster recovery efforts are in place, and if these initiatives are successful in practice.

Unfortunately, a number of companies are not ready for emergency situations, and it can take a significant amount of time to restore operations. The 2014 State of Global Disaster Recovery Preparedness report found that nearly 25 percent of respondents lost most or all data center functions for hours or even days, with losses ranging from thousands to millions of dollars. This isn't even considering the reputation and customer losses that downtime incurs. Implementing cloud solutions can significantly speed up the disaster recovery process and improve your operations in a few key ways:

1. Accessible from anywhere

Backing up critical files and assets provides a layer of flexibility to ensure that you can access and restore systems quickly. For data loss situations, the cloud provides instant connection to the necessary files, preventing heavy fines from industry governing bodies to recover information. This also minimizes productivity deficits and missed revenue opportunities. Accessibility to this essential data will help streamline recovery while reducing potential costs.

Cloud assets are available anywhere with an internet connection, speeding up recovery time.Cloud assets are available anywhere with an internet connection, speeding up recovery time.

What happens if work machines malfunction or the power goes out in your facility? You can no longer operate at that location and must wait for the issue to be fixed. The cloud makes it possible to conduct business outside of the office, allowing parts to be ordered to repair hardware or the power to be restored. However, as Ars Technica noted, this measure is only a short-term stopgap for many organizations. Your cloud disaster recovery plan must anticipate region-wide outages or other events to ensure that you're ready to cope with them if they occur.

2. Ease of use

Tape and disks have been used for system backups for decades. While these methods have their place in disaster recovery strategies, their age is starting to show, particularly when compared with cloud benefits. Tape and disks must be kept under particular conditions and are susceptible to environmental damage and deterioration. Backing up to and restoring data from these devices can also take a significantly long time and impede your operations.

Cloud backups run in the background on a scheduled basis, recording and saving changes to every essential document. This ensures that organizations have the most recent version of data on hand upon restoration. According to an infographic by ERS Computer Solutions, 52 percent of companies are moving to the cloud for disaster recovery efforts due to its ease of use, leaving the complexity of traditional solutions behind. In fact, 32 percent of respondents using cloud for disaster recovery are able to recover within 24 hours, compared with only 23 percent of those that don't leverage the cloud. An additional 20 percent of cloud users are able to restore operations within a few hours, while only 9 percent of non-cloud users could say the same.

"If an emergency happens, how do you know that your strategy will work?"

3. Automated testing

Many organizations believe that because they have a disaster recovery plan in place, that's good enough. However, if an emergency happens, how do you know that your strategy will work? Are you certain that your backup methods have been recording and restoring the right pieces of information? When disaster strikes, if you don't have the necessary information on hand or if your backups aren't working, it will take a lot of money and a significant amount of time to restore everything – if it can be restored at all.

You might be saying, "But we don't have time to test our plan every time a change is made." With the cloud, you can easily automate your disaster recovery testing to eliminate the guesswork and ensure a predictable, reliable recovery program, according to IT Biz Advisor. Evaluating your plan with automation will increase visibility into service-level agreements, adhere to regulatory requirements and reduce potential costs of a disaster.

Disaster recovery can be a tricky pursuit, but with the cloud, organizations can be better prepared for an emergency. Cloud-based solutions are available anywhere and easy to use, driving faster restoration capabilities. Contact ISG today to find out more about how the cloud can improve your disaster recovery strategy.

Why cloud-based data backup just makes sense

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Organizations largely rely on their files and information to conduct daily tasks and serve their customers. If your system is compromised, hardware malfunctions or data isn't retrievable, do you have a plan in place to quickly restore activities? Regular backups are used as a solid foundation for business continuity and disaster recovery strategies, and there are a number of options to choose from. Cloud-based data backup makes sense for a few major reasons:

1. Non-intrusive

One of the biggest problems with tape backups is that they take a significant amount of time to execute. Organizations might need to run tape backups during the workday, which gets in the way of other operations and might not finish until days later. Tape must also be stored within the right conditions to protect against degradation and secure in case of floods or fires.

Cloud-based backups are much less intrusive than tape. The backup is performed in the background, capturing each change made to information. This will ensure that if the data must be restored, the most recent version is readily available. Dobson Technologies noted that you'll only want to back up new and changed data daily to improve efficiency. You should also do a full system backup on a scheduled basis, like every other month. If you have numerous sensitive database files, these should be recorded more often than some other documents.

Cloud backups run in the background and don't intrude on operations.Cloud backups run in the background and don't intrude on operations.

2. Less costly

Tape is also becoming more costly to maintain. While tape has traditionally been eight to 10 times less expensive than other options, this doesn't take cloud efficiencies into account, TechTarget contributor Russ Fellows wrote. With cloud-based data, your information is stored offsite in hardware provided by a vendor. The vendor maintains, repairs and provisions these machines, significantly lowering your operational costs. You won't have to staff, train and assign employees, leaving your employees with more time to focus on critical tasks.

A capable managed service provider will also have security measures in place to effectively protect your sensitive data from being breached. Choose an MSP that understands your particular industry and can configure your cloud environment to meet compliance requirements. Your MSP should also be easily accessible for support during critical times when you need it most, resolving issues quickly and minimizing potential damages.

"How can you quickly deliver tape backup?"

3. More flexible access

Tape and disk backups can be damaged, lost or otherwise inaccessible. If one of your business locations is in a crisis, how can you deliver the tape backup to them quickly? The distance between facilities may not be feasible to travel and will be slow to restore operations. Even if you only have one office, what if it's unreachable due to weather, fire or floods? Tapes cannot survive in these types of conditions and may result in lost information.

Cloud-based backups are far more accessible, providing multiple copies of data at diverse locations. Employees can view important information using virtually any device with an internet connection. This means that if the office isn't open, you can still operate from home or another location. If data is lost on a machine due to a malfunction or an outage, you can easily search the cloud archive and restore what you need, according to ComputerWeekly. Services can also be scaled up or down as required, allowing organizations to quickly gain necessary functionality.

Cloud-based backup services have significantly evolved over the years to better suit business needs and provide the security that sensitive data requires. When compared with tape and disk backup, cloud solutions just make sense due to their cost savings, flexible access and non-intrusive nature. The best backup plans should leverage three backup copies, stored across two different media, with one stored offsite. For more information on how to take advantage of the cloud for your backup needs, contact ISG today.