Improving business security with a data centre

While there’s absolutely no doubt that the Internet has enhanced and even improved our lives in many ways, it has also made us more vulnerable to hackers and data breaches.

Take online banking for example. Being able to access our accounts and make payments via our very own computers is incredibly quick and convenient but if your login details fall into the wrong hands, this could be disastrous.

Additionally, being able to sell products online means that companies can now reach out to audiences all over the world that they never would have had access to otherwise. If your customers’ personal information gets leaked however, this could damage your reputation forever and even lead to the closure of your company.

Using a data centre such as Virtus Data Centres can help protect your business and here’s how:

More sophisticated systems

Unless you’re a huge, multi-million pound organisation, chances are that your security systems are limited by your budget. While your current strategy may be perfectly adequate, with the introduction of GDPR this month, protecting your customers’ data is more important than ever before. The Guardian has written a great article that helps explain how GDPR will affect you: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/21/what-is-gdpr-and-how-will-it-affect-you

When using a data centre, the security of your IT infrastructure is their highest priority because the success of their entire business depends on keeping your data safe. Because of this, data centres will use the most sophisticated and up-to-date systems which rely on multiple levels of security. From perimeter fencing, access control and CCTV to restricted pass code access and man and vehicle traps, it’s unlikely that many businesses would be able to provide this level of security for themselves.

Fewer risks

By managing your data security yourself, you may be using a few different methods and have several staff members who are responsible for this. By using a more centralised approach however, the architecture is easier and more straightforward to control which means there’s less risk involved.

Furthermore, with fewer sites and assets to manage, the physical task of securing your business is much easier, less costly and requires fewer resources.

You’re protected from disasters

Having become so dependent on technology, it’s not just data breaches we have to protect ourselves from. Have you thought about how your organisation would function if your systems went down? Does your company have a disaster recovery plan in place? (https://www.computerweekly.com/feature/How-to-write-a-disaster-recovery-plan-and-define-disaster-recovery-strategies). As great as your IT team may be, in the event of a major disaster, it would take a small team a great deal of time to work out what caused the issue and how to fix it.

This down-time can be incredibly costly to any business because it means that employees can’t work and customers won’t be able to access your products or services. As well as hitting you financially, this can also damage your reputation – sometimes beyond repair.

By using a data centre however, all of this is taken care of for you. Not only are you far less likely to experience down-time in the first place, in the rare event that it does happen, they have the facilities in place to get you back up and running before there’s any long-term damage.

Another huge benefit of outsourcing this function is that if a disaster should occur, a data centre is far more likely to be able to get crucial information back than if you were trying to manage this yourself.