Hackers and viruses can withstand a quality cloud
The pandemic has shown us that we are not only not safe in the outside world, but not safe online either. Businesses have started to take a more responsible approach to protecting data from cyber attackers. The pitfalls in terms of loss of reputation or money have kick-started processes towards upgrading technological equipment. An increasing percentage of medium and small companies are evaluating the transition from traditional server room to the cloud as a necessity.
Security is not the only advantage of storing corporate data in the cloud. GAMO’s cloud consultant Erik Kirschner will list five more in a moment. Last but not least, companies save money.
Is the slogan that it’s raining money from the cloud true?
Even if it doesn’t seem like it at first, companies always save money in the end. Just because data is more accessible in the cloud, always backed up, you can always access it quickly and securely, which is a significant difference compared to running applications in-house, i.e. on your own servers. Not to mention that in the case of the cloud it is a more modern infrastructure than “iron at home under the table”.
Let’s look more specifically at cloud benefits. What are their main benefits?
First, the cloud service provider’s infrastructure is more robust and has higher availability. The client does not have to worry about the server room, disk arrays, servers.
The second advantage is scalability. If a company needs a large disk volume for a short or limited period of time, for example 6 TB due to changes such as an accounting deadline, they can scale up the cloud server via the web interface. The same applies to CPU, RAM and other technical parameters of virtual servers. When the process is complete and the company no longer needs such a large storage, the disk volume in the cloud reverts to the original one and thus saves finances. This is a third plus. Let me give you an example: when a company has data on servers and wants to buy RAM (operating memory), for example, the IT department has to ask the management for money to buy it, and the management then has to pay the company that puts the RAM in the server. That’s two extra investments, whereas in the cloud it only takes a click or a phone call. The fourth positive factor of the cloud is momentum. The fifth advantage, which is also related to finance, can be considered flexibility – moving from investment (CAPEX) to operational (OPEX) costs. If a company has a cloud storage built on operational costs, it does not need to make any investment in infrastructure, but directly in the cloud to procure what it needs right now.
Another advantage is the continuous support, consultation of technical specialists in the native language.
And, of course, the last but not least advantage of the cloud is security. A cloud service provider is likely to always guarantee a high level of security as it provides services to a wide range of customers.
Now that employees of many companies have switched to the home office, should a quality cloud be a necessity? Is it?
Not by necessity, but the cloud would certainly help businesses. Anyone who works from home needs to access corporate applications. However, most companies don’t have the infrastructure built to allow secure access to applications. By moving to the cloud, they get two services in one. They don’t have to buy new hardware, they don’t have to replace firewalls and various security devices to securely access their business applications, but they can use the cloud where they get it all automatically. So in the cloud, both security and cheaper hardware resources are guaranteed.
If we were to assess the damage to a company after a hacker attack accompanied by a data leak compared to spending money on a quality cloud and its security guarantees, what would we find?
The winner here is clearly the one who has the data in the cloud. Just calculate how much money a company loses when it stops producing or simply doesn’t work.
I know a story where a company had to deal with a situation after a cyber attack. They were unprepared for the massive attack that hit their systems and backups, and even though they kept production running, they lost hundreds of thousands of euros. The starting point was to choose an environment where you can get your information system back on its feet quickly and securely. They migrated to the cloud. They still have the server hardware infrastructure in place, but they use it only as a backup. They have moved all production applications to the cloud. We also helped them change the architecture of some of the applications along with their settings so that the data could no longer be encrypted externally. What is backed up in the cloud is completely separate from the customer’s infrastructure and inaccessible to attackers if it is attacked again. The cloud is built for exactly this, we can recover the data very quickly in the event of another attack. The company in question has its headquarters about 200 kilometres from its virtual servers in the cloud, and there is no problem with that. They even welcome it for security.
Are there known cases where companies have lost their data despite having backups? Is the cloud 100 percent secure?
Nothing can be considered 100 percent safe. So 100% safe is not. But only because one of the intermediate factors is human – the human factor is always the biggest risk.
For example, a secretary opens an email that automatically downloads ransomware and encrypts data throughout the company. If the customer has servers securely backed up in the cloud, recovery is quick, but it can cost the company half a day to reinstall PCs/Notebooks. However, it is certainly incomparably faster and less financially painful than finding solutions to save data and functionality for a business that has storage “in iron”.
Are there differences between existing clouds? Let’s define the types of clouds and who they are for.
For smaller and medium-sized businesses, the public cloud is preferable because it represents low cost and readily available computing power.
The private cloud is suitable for larger companies for special applications that must be on dedicated hardware for licensing reasons.
I would personally recommend hybrid cloud as the optimal solution for everyone. Here, part of the traffic can be in the public cloud and part in the private infrastructure, or the company can have one of the clouds as a working cloud and the other as a backup.
However, it also all depends on the nature of the applications, as each company uses something different. One may have applications specific to their production process, another uses them running directly in the cloud. It’s all “case by case” and very individual. I’ll say this using the example of running a store with branches all over the country. It is easier and more reasonable for them to connect to central applications – for example, to the cash register or warehouses – in the cloud than if they had them “at home” on servers. Internet connection to the applications would be both slower and more expensive.
But isn’t it difficult to move to the cloud? That’s probably the question you encounter most often.
Along with how much it would cost us (smile). Here, we always try to explain to clients that the price is related to the scalability of the cloud environment. When it comes to moving to the cloud, migration is a simple process if you have enough time to prepare and a qualified partner.
How is the migration to the cloud?
In two relatively simple but different ways.
The first way: the company’s entire server with all the data is moved to the cloud and there it is run as a virtual server. So the company goes from the physical world to the virtual world. All the “junk”, old software, untidy databases, old data, will also be transferred to the cloud. In this case, however, updating data and systems will always be more difficult.
The second way: only production, application data that the company really needs is backed up. A new, up-to-date virtual server is installed in the cloud, new versions of operating systems are installed, new versions of applications are installed, and only clean, useful data is imported. The result is the final operation on the upgraded software.
At GAMO, migration to the cloud is free. I personally recommend the method where the whole server is not moved, but the data is installed completely. Everything is much easier and faster to update and maintain later.
How is the Slovak cloud exceptional compared to big players like Google, Amazon or Microsoft 365?
It’s all about people. The companies mentioned are much bigger as providers, they have more services. But for many small companies in Slovakia their services are unreachable, also because they have no one to turn to in the local language. They have to go to the portal, where everything is in English, and click on the assignment. It can happen that with a wrong click the company suddenly gets an invoice 4000 Euros higher. And this is just a case of inattention, a mistake. In Slovakia, 90% of companies are small. A large provider is in a sense an inaccessible thing for them. IT-skilled people may have a language barrier, or they don’t know how to operate the vast offer of cloud services offered by global providers. If they do something wrong, they can damage their virtual infrastructure in the cloud, and that can ultimately impact the invoice. And, of course, if they would like a consultation from Google or Amazon, their hourly rates are in different, higher financial levels than, for example, the GAMO Cloud service.
So what are the benefits of GAMO Cloud directly?
The big advantage of GAMO over multinational providers is that we communicate with our customers directly and in Slovak. At any time it is possible to call with a request, we will propose a solution, and then the applications can be transferred to us in the cloud. Our services are all about availability, more speed and proximity to people, full interoperability. We often find that customers want to go to the cloud but don’t know how to do it. These are mostly those who don’t have IT as a core business. For example, a florist, a butcher or a manufacturing business. If they have an IT department, there are usually few people there, and they don’t have enough time to follow the trends in the technologies they manage to maintain and grow their core business. They have the option to go to companies where they can listen to them, give them a helping hand and suggest a workable solution. It is only when their hardware runs out and they have to buy new hardware that they start to find out about moving to the cloud. They reach out to us and a collaborative discussion begins. We find out what they run, whether the applications they need are local or if it’s software that manages some production lines and so on. We then consider what is appropriate and available to migrate to the cloud. Our data centre is in Bratislava, and we have customers from all over Slovakia, but also from other European Union countries.
Why then are not more companies in Slovakia using cloud services? What concerns do you encounter as a cloud consultant with clients?
Paradoxically, it is not just finance. When we talk to IT people in companies, they are worried that we want to replace them. What ignorance. We are not replacing people, nor do we have the human resources to do so, we are trying to cooperate and collaborate with local IT people. We ensure the computing power, the availability of the applications, so that they have more scalability, quality, so that the system always works, without downtime, and so on. So that they don’t have to invest in buying new hardware anymore, having them under the table.
Does the advantage in saving money in the long run help in the argument?
Most CFOs understand the logic of turning capital costs into operating costs, which is what moving to the cloud brings. Also, a key argument is that with the cloud, you can buy and use more space or power immediately if you need it. And vice versa. So the customer really only pays for what they actually use. If a customer has excess HW resources, they will simply reduce them and pay less, if they need to add more, they will buy more. This is certainly true for SW licenses as well.
So do you see the future of cloud services in bright colours?
In very bright. It is only worth investing in and buying hardware for large companies these days. In Slovakia, 90% of companies would operate in the cloud without any problems. The reason they are not there yet may be due to owning and using hardware under warranty or with a lifetime. The latter is 5, 6, sometimes 7 years. And when a company has 3 year old hardware, they won’t migrate to the cloud just yet. In the future, however, it will. But if someone is starting to build a business now, I definitely recommend the cloud, not their own hardware. In the future, companies will even use two clouds, two providers at the same time. So that they have the guarantee that if something happens to one, they can rely on the other one. When you think of the word cloud, it will no longer just be associated with infrastructure, but will include artificial intelligence or machine learning services. So the cloud will always be there, it will just be constantly evolving, adding new features and services.
