UK Finance News

We are all becoming increasingly familiar with the concept of ‘the cloud’. The idea can be summed up as: computter resources suspended out there somewhere in the ether (rather than anchored in your office or computer room) to which we connect as and when necessary.

All those of us who make use of social networks such as Facebook or who use online storage services, such as those supplied by Google, are engaging with the cloud.

Cloud computing represents an inevitable stage in information technology’s history. For organisations, large or small, it is a boon, as they needn’t own or maintain any servers. Virtually every type of software one could dream of is available in the cloud.

Company’s websites can of course be hosted by any one of thousands of hosting outfits. There are now many well-established cloud technology services which one can contact to provide a sales and marketing management system which resides on their computers but accessed via the cloud. By having someone else take the worry of the basic technology, business owners get to focus on their company’s dedicated function.

Concerns are often expressed about the perceived lower level of security which comes with cloud computing. Legacy IT security strategies of a physical nature are not appropriate for cloud protection. However, to counteract both the accidental loss of data and the prospect of outsiders gaining access there exist means of organising encrypted backups of files. And with a whole raft of companies offering features such as Secure Cryptographic Key Storage to businesses, the hazard of security breaches is taken care of.

Ideally, the situation will remain as healthy as it is now with a plethora of choices available to the business world. While plenty of clouds are out there to choose from, competitors being launched daily, making use of the low-cost nature of the cloud, the standards are, if anything, only going to be driven higher.