Data security tops the list for SMBs…not surprising, so what is the answer?
According to this post by Cloud Tweaks, “ A recent small business cloud computing survey from Microsoft found that a chief concern of potential SMB cloud customers is the security and privacy of their data. A full 70% of small businesses are concerned about where their data is stored. Just over half of all SMBs cite data privacy as a potential deal breaker for adopting cloud services. And only 36% of businesses think their data is as or more secure in the cloud than their current on premises solution.”
The answer is that there is no real answer. The threat of hackers will always be there, but SMBs can take the necessary steps to ensure their data is encrypted whether it’s in flight or stationary or retired. Cloud Tweaks offers a great list of options to SMBs in the area of encryption and data security relative to cloud storage.
Sure, many SMBs are migrating to the cloud, especially startups, but there are many that choose to keep their data in house, and use the cloud for disaster recovery. For those businesses, network attach storage seems to be the route of choice when it comes to small business storage. It’s relatively inexpensive, super simple to use, has cloud-like features built-in, and offers encryption.
Seagate’s BlackArmor line of small business storage is one example. There are countless NAS boxes on the market fully populated with hard drives, and even empty systems that SMBs can choose to populate with drives themselves. This is becoming more and more common as small businesses look to purchase only what they need and expand their capacity by simply adding another hard drive. Most, if not all, have the same set of features listed above:
- Remote Access
- Data Encryption
- Hot-swappable hard drives
- Windows & Mac compatible
No doubt, as SMB’s data continues to grow, security remains a top concern, and the cloud becomes more of the go-to option, the NAS market is going to need to evolve to offer even more. More capacity, greater security, better cloud integration…all great features, but what else? Or, is this enough?
SMBs chime in…what is your must have feature for your storage needs? Not today, tomorrow…where do you see your business heading? What storage pains are just starting to rear their head?
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