Necessity Of Data Migration To Cloud In 2021

The importance of cloud-based applications is increasing as a number of businesses are planning to move their applications towards remote infrastructure because of the various advantages. Data Migration to cloud-based hosting appears to be a top preference for companies in 2021. It is expected to maintain its preference status for the following many years as well. However, the two most important questions that come to mind are, why has cloud computing been gaining popularity? Why are retail businesses preferring to use cloud retail POS systems?

The answer for both the questions is that it allows users and businesses to run applications without installing them on the physical system and have better data security protection compared to on-premises. Cloud computing also eliminates the additional cost required by the business to purchase and manage IT infrastructure to keep the system running. Additionally, cloud-based technology also enables businesses to access information/systems from almost anywhere, which became critical after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. In general, the cloud-based POS system is less expensive than the traditional point-of-sale system, which allows small scale businesses to adopt the POS software to manage operations.

Why Cloud Computing?

Many businesses are now investing extensively in cloud computing to meet their operational requirements because of several benefits, which are as follows.

• Cloud technology empowers business owners to access their system remotely using a primary internet connection.
• The security infrastructure of the cloud server is ten times better than on-premises data server.
• Data / Application is only accessible to authorized personnel defined by the business owner.
• The service provider is responsible for maintenance and upgrades of the IT infrastructure required to keep the system and data secure from all kinds of the latest virus attacks.
• Data is automatically backed up on cloud storage after every business transaction is performed.
• All the business information which is stored in the cloud server is fully encrypted.

According to Bloomberg, by the year 2025, the cloud computing market will be worth $832 billion, and the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba will invest around $28 billion alone in the next three years. In this blog, we will be discussing data security in the cloud-based system and what sort of advantages it provides to businesses.

Immediate Attack Response:

One of the most important advantages of the cloud-based system is that it offers businesses to respond immediately in case of any type of cyberattack on the system. In a traditional  POS software, the data is stored on a physical computer that is not strongly encrypted and secured compared to the data stored over the cloud server. Also, in case of a breach, you will be informed timely and have a recovery span in which data can be restored, but in the traditional type, you will find out about the breach when it’s physically accessed. Cloud-based systems minimize the threats of any type of cyber-attack and allow you to re-backup the critical data from any errors.

Information Protection:

The cloud-based system has many benefits, but most importantly, it provides better data protection compared to the local server module because all the business transactions which are executed in the cloud-based POS system are not stored on the local computer. In other words, all the information of the system is transferred to the cloud storage after every execution, which safeguards data from all kinds of computer or cyber-attacks. Data stored in the traditional server is now more vulnerable as compared to the storage in the cloud system because now IT security system updates and maintenance are required more frequently after an increase of cyber and malware attacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Limited Physical Access:

In the traditional system, the business application and data are hosted on a local machine or server, and the system can be accessed physically by any unauthorized person easily if the standard security(not accessible by an unauthorized staff member) is not present because anyone can easily access the system and can inject viruses or attempt for data theft. But in the cloud-based system, this vulnerability doesn’t exist due to extra layers of security and policies implemented by the service provider. All the critical business data and application hosted on a cloud server is not accessible by anyone other than the defined users and every activity is appropriately logged for any future tracking incase of any issues.

Secure Information:

Data has always remained the most important asset for any kind of business. Owners are now taking precautionary measures to keep their data protected from being compromised or erased due to threats. The cloud server’s security measures are advanced compared to on-premises storage, especially for small-scale businesses with a limited IT security budget. Some of the data security measures which are available in the cloud-based system are as follows

• Advanced level firewalls are configured on the cloud server to monitor each data packet for anomaly detection.
• Intrusion detection systems are also configured to detect any kind of intrusion in the system.
• Auto-backup of the complete business information.
• Encryption of all the data.

 Conclusion:

Cloud computing’s significance is growing very rapidly, and it is widely regarded as the best innovation which has changed the complete landscape of IT functionality. Businesses worldwide are gradually shifting towards cloud technology because of the various features available to safeguard critical information.