When it comes to data security there are two main pain points related
Adoption of Google Cloud products and services can increase the protection of your data, optimize resources and thus the ROI, but it must be accompanied by a corporate culture and skillful digital transformation.
In this article we have shared some thoughts and best practices, although it is only with a targeted advisory that you can analyze all the IT tools you use and highlight potential vulnerabilities.
Let's start with the tool we all use on a daily basis. Many people choose Google Workspace to move to a security-aware environment, but they only consider email services, so they end up not taking advantage of many features included in the suite.
What is the risk? Exposing sensitive data. Let's see why: there are still many users who access Google Workspace, thus increasing protection against SPAM and phishing, but still store data locally on the computer, use an email client and not Google's web interface, have inadequate office automation tools, and a poorly updated operating system.
Even so, Google Cloud offers a secure work environment and enterprise tools, such as Documents, Worksheets, Presentations, and Photos, accessible from the browser, which armor customer and user data.
It goes without saying that digital transformation must precede the adoption of cloud tools to make all business processes efficient.
If the adoption of new business tools is accompanied by a wise digital transformation, the next step is to extend security with an upgrade to the version of Google Workspace best suited to your needs.
Monitoring and security tools are capillary with respect to users' data and activities and are directly proportional to the version of Google Workspace adopted.
Let's try to give a brief recap:
Protect sensitive data
We've talked about e-mail and the data that is carried with attachments, documents, presentations, and throughout the corporate archive, but also at risk is the performance of your services.
If your eCommerce for example stops working due to unexpected user access (Black Friday, promotions...) the customer experience is compromised, users abandon the shop and look at your services with distrust.
For poorly maintained services, there is a high probability that sensitive data will be overexposed and your company may lose revenue, both because of purchases that are not completed and because of the time your resources will have to devote to resolving these critical issues.
If your company exposes services on the Internet what you need to ask yourself is, can I run an efficient service or can I optimize it by breaking it down through Google Cloud features?
For those who want to migrate their services to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) there are two opportunities:
This last opportunity has countless advantages in terms of security, resilience, and quality of service offered, so you can focus on the quality of what you offer and not on the burden of management.
If you dispense the eCommerce service an inexpensive provider and directly manage a virtual machine, you can migrate to Google Compute Engine; if you want to increase the level of security and want to offer your customers the same service using tools that Google directly provides you can use the database offered as Google's "platform service" ( Cloud SQL ) and perhaps make your application available on microservices (Docker) through Google Application Engine.
Through this second solution, the company doesn't have to worry about managing the virtual machine, but instead buys managed services directly from Google that allow it to not have the burden of managing the server and thus have, a higher level of security.
If you use an on-premise system, here are some issues you should not ignore that are driving the development of cloud security and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
Public clouds are large enough to implement levels of security and resilience that few organizations have created before. Google operates a global network, builds systems, networks, storage, and software stacks, and has a default level of security that has never been seen before. Google prioritizes security, but prioritizing security becomes easier and cheaper because the marginal cost of security decreases per unit of deployment.
Finally, where more cost is needed to support specific configurations, this has also decreased as a function of high demand and new tools available.
The responsibility-sharing model that has underpinned cloud computing since its early days dictates that the cloud provider is responsible for protecting its products and services, while the customer is responsible for secure configuration, data protection, and access permissions.
If companies are unable to apply security resources (realistically happens even in larger organizations), an optimal security strategy is to adopt every update provided by the cloud provider to protect networks, systems, and data. It is like tapping into a global digital immune system.
Cloud providers use a software development model through continuous delivery/continuous integration. This is a necessity to enable innovation through frequent improvements and security updates, achieving reliability at scale.
A common concern related to moving to the cloud is that it is too complex. Certainly, starting from scratch and learning all the features offered by the cloud can be daunting. However, today's feature-rich cloud offerings are much simpler than previous on-premise environments, which are among other things much less reliable.
The cloud can more easily meet deployment needs close to the context in which one lives; workloads can be more easily deployed on more energy-efficient infrastructure. This, along with the inherent efficiency of the cloud due to better resource utilization, gives the cloud more sustainability.
For personalized advice and to increase security in your business book an appointment with one of our experts.