What is Cloud Misconfiguration and How Can You Avoid It?

The increased usage of the cloud, intended to promote company agility and resilience, has recently increased cyber risks. It does not follow, however, that choosing to adopt cloud-based-hosted environments automatically increases an organization’s vulnerability to a cyberattack. Because specific security solutions aren’t designed to secure cloud-hosted environments, securing a cloud environment requires a different security strategy than securing on-premises infrastructures.

IaaS (infrastructure-as-a-service) solutions are becoming increasingly popular among businesses for their IT operations. According to Gartner, by 2022, double the number of corporate entities using cloud-managed products 2018 will be using them.

According to the NSA, cloud misconfiguration is the most significant vulnerability in a cloud security environment. Although these risks are frequently modest in sophistication, the occurrence of cloud misconfiguration problems is typically through the sky. In other words, 99% of businesses will have cloud misconfigurations that they are entirely unaware of.

What is Cloud Misconfiguration?

Any flaws, defects, or holes in your cloud setup that could put you in danger are called cloud misconfiguration. This cloud security risk may manifest as insider threats, cloud breaches, data breaches, insider threats, or bad external actors who use your network’s weaknesses to their advantage. This serious compliance risk might appear in a variety of ways, including:

• Granting public access to storage buckets;
• Unknowingly disclosing unencrypted data to the public internet without the necessary authentication in place;
• Improper network functionality generation;
• Exposing data saved in the cloud to all system users and storing encryption keys and passwords in publicly accessible repositories.

It can be either malicious or accidental.

• Malicious cloud misconfiguration is when someone deliberately sets up their cloud server to access someone else’s product or data. This is often done by hackers who want to steal information or even cause physical harm.
• Accidental cloud misconfiguration happens when a company puts its information on public clouds and does not secure it properly. This can happen because a company doesn’t understand its responsibilities in this respect or anticipate how much work would be required to ensure its data once it is moved into the cloud.

Leading Causes of Misconfigured Cloud Infrastructures

Most misconfigurations are caused by human error and elements like overly complicated infrastructure or inadequate knowledge of security procedures.

Malicious Insiders

While it is difficult to know who is responsible for a breach, the most common culprits are malicious insiders who have gained access to user credentials and have tried to use them to launch attacks on the cloud environment. As a result, users are often forced to change their passwords or reset their accounts’ entire passwords.

Denial of Service Attacks (DoS)

A denial of service attack occurs when an attacker tries to overload a system with data requests so that it cannot service legitimate requests from users or other applications. This can result in lost productivity, disrupted operations, and an inability to process payments, which can cause financial losses for companies with cloud-based eCommerce platforms.

Overly Complex Infrastructure

Cloud infrastructure typically consists of multiple components such as servers, storage systems, networks, and firewalls that work together to provide cloud services across various geographic locations worldwide. IT professionals may become susceptible to attack by hackers or malware distributors seeking entry into company systems when these components are not correctly configured or managed by IT professionals.

Unauthorized Access

An unauthorized individual can access your cloud infrastructure and wreak havoc on the AWS environment. In the case of a malicious actor, the consequences can be devastating to business operations, financial security, or even human lives.

Insufficient Understanding of Security

When creating and managing apps and infrastructure, the majority of developers and DevOps teams do not place a high priority on security. These teams primarily concentrate on ensuring that services perform properly and offer users functionality.

When selecting members for your development team, consider security. Ensure they comprehend crucial ideas like application hardening, least privilege, and encryption at rest.

How to Avoid Cloud Misconfiguration?

Here are some tips to avoid cloud misconfiguration:

Implement Log Tracking

The first step to avoiding cloud misconfiguration is to implement logging and monitoring. When a cloud service is misconfigured, it’s often difficult to identify what exactly went wrong. The best way to catch this type of issue is by using a detailed logging and monitoring system. You can determine the root cause of any misconfiguration incidents by tracking changes.

Add Layered Security

Layer testing is another way to prevent cloud misconfiguration issues. Layer testing involves placing multiple checks on your application before deploying it in production. For example, if you are deploying an application that requires authentication, you will use one layer of testing for authentication and another layer for authorization. This way, if something goes wrong during authentication, it does not affect approval.

Automate Configuration and Security Checks

Automation is an integral part of cloud security. A data breach can occur if the same settings are used in multiple environments. Automating the deployment of your infrastructure helps you eliminate this risk.

Simplify Your Environments

If you have multiple environments for your applications, then it’s essential to simplify them as much as possible. This is because every domain has different requirements and limitations. For example, if you have an internal production environment and an external staging environment, having two separate configurations will complicate things further down the line.

Document Everything

If you’re using cloud-based services, then they will require your information. So, ensure you have all the documentation ready before moving to the next step. This will help you in case of an issue with your service or a security breach.

Scan for Vulnerabilities

A scan will check whether your server has known security issues that could allow hackers to access it. If there are any vulnerabilities, ensure you fix them as soon as possible by following best practices such as patching software, updating third-party libraries, or installing anti-virus software on your server.

Adopt a DevSecOps Culture

The process of development and deployment has long neglected security. A DevSecOps culture is created by combining awareness and attention to growth, safety, and operations. This culture makes incorporating security as a crucial component of application design and development more accessible.

It helps to build security into your application’s framework to have competent security resources on your design and development teams. Avoiding issues in the first place will prevent the hassle of dealing with them afterward.

Conclusion

Misconfiguration issues are ultimately nothing new; they have moved to the cloud with the applications. Your organization’s ability to lower its cyber risk and the likelihood of being a victim of a cloud-misconfiguration-based breach will improve the more cloud security automation you can deploy in combination with human-backed services. Managing your security threats inside your expanding list of cloud services is crucial as cloud usage keeps accelerating. A significant data leak can result from a single configuration error.

An automated solution like Protected Harbor can help you reduce your attack surface and control third-party cloud exposures through real-time monitoring and optimized remediation workflows. We help businesses and enterprises protect their data and assets by offering cloud configuration solutions. We offer a full range of cloud services, including infrastructure, platform, and software solutions.

With a team of certified engineers and consultants, we help enterprises and businesses migrate, transform, and digitize their critical business processes. We work with our clients to understand their business requirements, design the best architecture, and execute the project with utmost care. We are a team of professionals who believe in integrity, honesty, and hard work.

With our solutions, you can focus on what matters most to your business. Contact us today to learn about cloud migration and configuration.

The Top 5 Risks of Cloud Migration

When it comes to cloud migration, there are plenty of risks involved. Every business considering migrating its IT infrastructure from a traditional data center to a public cloud must identify potential obstacles. After all, it’s not an easy transition, even with the many tools and resources available. A study by New Voice Media found that only 14 percent of companies that had begun transitioning to the cloud environment completed the process successfully. This means businesses have plenty of opportunities to get things right the first time. With so much information available about how and why companies should migrate their IT infrastructure to the cloud, it’s essential to understand which risks need addressing first.

When deciding about cloud migration services, one of the first things to remember is the risk involved with the process. There are many different types of risk, ranging from financial to technical. In this blog, we’ll learn the top 5 risks of cloud migration and how to mitigate them.

Cloud Migration is Only the Beginning

Cloud migration is the process of moving applications, data, and other business elements from on-premises infrastructure to the cloud. When companies approach the decision for cloud adoption, they often think it will solve all of their problems. The most significant risk is that businesses assume they can put off addressing the issues they face today by migrating tomorrow. In reality, migration is only the beginning of a new set of challenges that businesses must overcome to ensure their data remains safe and secure in the long term. If a company has a poor security system today, it will have a flawed one tomorrow, regardless of whether the data is hosted on-premises or in the cloud. This is why migration should be seen as a way to improve the business environment rather than just a quick fix to a single issue.

There are four main types of cloud migration: Lift and Shift, Replatforming, Refactoring, and Rearchitecting. These four types of cloud migration offer businesses different levels of transformation and complexity, providing options to choose the most suitable approach for their needs.

Why is Security in the Cloud a Challenge?

Migration to the cloud should be considered a long-term investment, not a short-term solution. However, the fact that most organizations are new to the cloud platform makes it difficult for them to know what to expect. Often, businesses don’t fully understand the risk associated with, and the potential impact cloud migration could have on their business. Of course, security is the biggest challenge of all. Public cloud data centers are designed for maximum scalability and flexibility, so companies don’t have the same level of control and visibility as they do with their own data centers. Even if a business uses a managed cloud provider or hybrid clouds, it still has to ensure it applies the proper security measures to keep its data safe.

To mitigate the risks associated with cloud migration, developing a comprehensive cloud migration plan and carefully choosing a reliable cloud migration service provider is crucial.

Data Theft Causes Unauthorized Access

Data theft is a common problem with traditional infrastructure. If a company fails to protect its application and data, unauthorized access is always a risk. Businesses are no longer in control when that data is migrated to the cloud. When migrating to the cloud, companies often store their data in a third-party facility or premises data center. This creates a single point of failure; hackers will have access to all the data if they breach security. This can include all types of information, including personally identifiable and sensitive client information. If this data is stolen and isn’t encrypted, it can be used for malicious purposes, including identity theft and financial fraud. The potential economic impact on a business can be huge.

How to avoid it?

• Encryption: Implement strong encryption methods for data in transit and at rest. This ensures that even if unauthorized access occurs, the stolen data remains unreadable.
• Access Control: Utilize robust access control mechanisms to limit and monitor who can access sensitive data. Implement multi-factor authentication for an added layer of security.

Third-Party Product Comes with Security Risks

Third-party products are needed in every aspect of the business. However, they present certain security risks. For example, a third-party VPN device could be easy for hackers to compromise. When migrating to the cloud, it is crucial to understand the security level of third-party products and services. Businesses must make sure the service provider uses a secure VPN connection when outsourcing. They should also consider hiring a third-party provider with a secure data center.

How to avoid it?

• Vendor Assessment: Conduct thorough security assessments of third-party products and services before integrating them into your cloud environment. Ensure that vendors adhere to industry-standard security practices.
• Continuous Monitoring: Regularly monitor and update third-party products to address any vulnerabilities promptly.

Hackers Can Compromise Vulnerable VPN Devices

Virtual private networks, or VPNs, provide a secure connection that keeps your internet data hidden from hackers and enables companies to safeguard their private cloud resources. Many cloud apps require a VPN to transport data from on-premises systems to the cloud. Although they are often bidirectional, VPNs are set up to only work in one direction. This frequently exposes your business to a cloud service provider attack. When hackers break into a VPN device, they can access the data transmitted between a remote user and the data center. This can result in data loss, stolen information, and financial losses.

How to avoid it?

• VPN Security Best Practices: Implement best practices for VPN security, such as regular updates, strong encryption protocols, and multi-factor authentication.
• Network Segmentation: Employ network segmentation to isolate critical components and minimize the impact of a potential breach.

Accidental Exposure of User Credentials

Cybercriminals typically use cloud apps as a cover in their phishing assaults.  Due to the widespread usage of cloud-based communications and document-sharing services, employees are used to getting emails with links requesting them to validate their credentials before accessing a particular site or document.

Businesses often collect user credentials on the premises, such as passwords and usernames. However, when these credentials are migrated to the cloud, they are stored the same way as the other data. If hackers can access this information, it can result in a severe security breach. If the credentials are stored in plain text, hackers will be able to see them. This is one of the most common ways for hackers to access secure data. A fast and secure migration process involves encrypting the user credentials. However, some companies don’t make this a priority.

How to avoid it?

• Education and Training: Provide ongoing cybersecurity education and training for employees to recognize phishing attempts and avoid falling victim to credential theft.
• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Enforce MFA to add an extra layer of protection, even if user credentials are compromised.

Lack of Secure API

An API is essential for connecting different business components, including CRM, application migration, and billing systems. If a company doesn’t put security at the forefront when designing its API, it can pose a significant risk to the business. When creating an API or a cloud native app, it is crucial to understand the security requirements. This includes authentication, authorization, and session management. If a company overlooks any of these requirements, it can result in a severe breach of security. Hackers can access sensitive data in the cloud if the API is easy to compromise. The Facebook-Cambridge Analytical Scandal, which gave Cambridge Analytica access to user data, is the most common example of an insecure API.

How to avoid it?

• API Security Guidelines: Follow industry best practices and guidelines for designing secure APIs. This includes proper authentication, authorization, and encryption of data transmitted via APIs.
• Regular Audits: Conduct regular security audits and assessments of APIs to identify and address vulnerabilities proactively.

Conclusion

By incorporating these strategies into your cloud migration plan and partnering with a reliable cloud migration service provider, you can significantly reduce the cloud migration challenges. Regularly reassess and update your security measures to adapt to evolving threats and technology advancements.

Moving to the cloud platform can be your business’s best action. Before going further, be sure you have a clear cloud migration strategy and are aware of the dangers associated with potential incompatibilities with the current architecture, security threats, and reduced visibility and control. Additionally, make every effort to prevent data loss, incomplete data deletion, excessive spending, and additional latency. Cloud migration plan might benefit your company if you can avoid these problems.

If you are considering moving your business to the cloud, you might have concerns about data security and the potential for downtime that could impact your customers. With Protected Harbor, you can rest assured that your data will be secure and available whenever needed while we create a tailored migration plan. Our engineers are certified by every primary cloud provider, and our team members are dedicated to your business’s success. We are rated as one of the top cloud computing companies in the US by Goodfirms.

With our help, you can start enjoying the benefits of the cloud sooner rather than later. Contact our cloud migration expert today.

What are the types of clouds? Which one’s best for your business?

When you think of cloud technology, the first thing that comes to mind is big companies like Google and Amazon using it to run their massive online operations. But the truth is, this type of software has many small-time entrepreneurs using it to run their businesses. And if you’re not sure which kind of cloud computing service is right for your business, here’s a brief explanation about the different types of clouds and why you should choose one over the other.

What is a Hybrid Cloud?

The hybrid cloud integrates private cloud services, public cloud services, and on-premises infrastructure. It provides management, orchestration, and application portability over all three cloud services. As a result, a unified, single, and flexible distributed computing environment is formed. An organization can deploy and scale its cloud-native or traditional workloads on the appropriate cloud model.

The hybrid cloud includes the public cloud services from multiple cloud service providers. It enables organizations to

• Choose the optimized cloud environment for each workload
• Combine the best cloud services and functionality from multiple cloud vendors.
• Move workloads between private and public cloud as circumstances change.

A hybrid cloud helps organizations achieve their business and technical objectives cost-efficiently and more effectively than the private or public cloud alone.

Hybrid Cloud Architecture

Hybrid cloud architecture focuses on transforming the mechanics of an organization’s on-premises data center into the private cloud infrastructure and then connecting it to the public cloud environments hosted by a public cloud provider. Uniform management of private and public cloud resources is preferable to managing cloud environments individually because it minimizes the risk of process redundancies.

The hybrid cloud architecture has the following characteristics.

1. Scalability and resilience

Use public cloud resources to scale up and down automatically, quickly, and inexpensively to increase traffic spikes without affecting private cloud workloads.

2. Security and regulatory compliance

Use private cloud resources for highly regulated workloads and sensitive data, and use economic public cloud resources for less-sensitive data and workloads.

3. Enhancing legacy application

Use public cloud resources to improve the user experience of existing applications and extend them to new devices.

4. The rapid adoption of advanced technology

You can switch to cutting-edge solutions and integrate them into existing apps without provisioning new on-premises infrastructure.

5. VMware migration

Shift existing on-premises infrastructure and workloads to virtual public cloud infrastructure to reduce on-premises data center footprint and scale according to requirements without additional cost.

6. Resource optimization and cost savings

Execute workloads with predictable capacity on the private cloud and move variable workloads to the public cloud.

Hybrid cloud advantages

The main advantages of a hybrid cloud include the following.

• Cost management_ Organizations operate the data center infrastructure with a private cloud. It requires a significant expense and fixed cost. However, a public cloud provides services and resources accounted for as operational and variable expenses.
• Flexibility_ An organization can build a hybrid cloud environment that works for its requirements using traditional systems and the latest cloud technology. A hybrid setup allows organizations to migrate their workloads to and from the traditional infrastructure to the vendor’s public cloud.
• Agility and scalability_ Hybrid cloud provides more resources than a public cloud provider. This makes it easier to create, deploy, manage, and scale resources to meet demand spikes. Organizations can burst the application to a public cloud when demand exceeds the capacity of a local data center to access extra power and scale.
• Interoperability and resilience_ A business can run workloads in public and private environments to increase resiliency. Components of one workload can run in both environments and interoperate.

Reference Link

https://www.ibm.com/cloud/learn/hybrid-cloud

What is a Public Cloud?

A public cloud is a computing service provided by third-party service providers across the public Internet. It is available to anyone who wants to use these services or purchase them. These services may be free or sold on-demand, allowing users to pay per usage for the storage, bandwidth, or CPU cycles they consume. Public clouds can save organizations from the cost of buying, maintaining, and managing on-premises infrastructure.

The public cloud can be deployed faster than on-premises and is an infinitely scalable platform. Each employee of an organization can use the same application from any branch through their device of choice using the Internet. Moreover, they run in multi-tenant environments where customers share a pool of resources provisioned automatically and allocated to individual users via a self-service interface. Each user’s data is isolated from others.

Public cloud architecture

A public cloud is a completely virtualized environment that relies on a high-bandwidth network to transmit data. Its multi-tenant architecture lets users run the workload on shared infrastructure. Cloud resources can be duplicated over multiple availability zones for protection against outages and redundancy.

Cloud service models categorize public cloud architecture. Here are the three most common service models.

• Infrastructure-as-a-Service_ in which third-party providers host infrastructure resources, such as storage and servers, and virtualization layer. They offer virtualized computing resources, such as virtual machines, over the Internet.
• Software-as-a-Service_ in which third-party service providers host applications and software and make them available to customers across the Internet.
• Platform-as-a-Service_ in which third-party service providers deliver software and hardware tools for application development, such as operating systems.

Advantages of Public Cloud

The public cloud has the following advantages

1. Scalability

Cloud resources can be expanded rapidly to meet traffic spikes and user demand. Public cloud users can gain high availability and greater redundancy in separated cloud locations. Apart from the availability and redundancy, public cloud customers get faster connectivity between the end-users and cloud services using the network interfaces. However, latency and bandwidth issues are still common.

2. Access to advanced technologies

Organizations using cloud service providers can get instant access to the latest technologies, ranging from automatic updates to AI and machine learning.

3. Analytics

Organizations should collect useful data metrics they store and the resources they use. Public cloud services perform analytics on high-volume data and accommodate several data types to give business insights.

4. Flexibility

The scalable and flexible nature of the public cloud allows customers to store high-volume data. Many organizations depend on the cloud for disaster recovery to back up applications and data during an outage or in an emergency. However, it’s tempting to store all data, but users must set up a data retention policy to delete data from storage to reduce the storage cost and maintain privacy.

Limitations or challenges of Public cloud

• Runway costs_ Increasingly complex pricing models and cloud costs make it difficult for companies to track IT spending. It is cheaper than on-premises infrastructure, but sometimes organizations pay more for the cloud.
• Limited controls_ Public cloud customers face the tradeoff of restricted control over the IT stack. Moreover, data separation problems arise due to multi-tenancy and latency issues for remote end-users.
• Scarce cloud expertise_ The skill gap among IT experts in the cloud is another challenge. Without expertise, companies can’t handle the complexities of advanced IT demands.

What is a Private Cloud?

A private cloud is defined as computing services provided over a private internal network or the Internet, only to specific users rather than the general public. It is also known as a corporate or internal cloud. The private cloud provides many benefits to businesses, such as scalability, self-service, and elasticity to a public cloud. In addition, it gives extended, virtualized computing resources through physical components stored at a vendor’s data center or on-premises.

One of the main advantages of the private cloud is that it provides an enhanced degree of control to organizations. As it is accessible to a single organization, it enables them to configure the environment and manage it in a unique way tailored to the particular computing needs of a company.

A private cloud can deliver two models for cloud services. Infrastructure-as-a-Service enables a company to use resources, such as network, storage, and computing resources. And platform as a service that allows a company to deliver everything from cloud-based applications to sophisticated enterprise applications.

Private Cloud Architecture

A private cloud with a single-tenant design is based on the same technologies as other clouds. Technologies that allow customers to configure computing resources and virtual servers on demand. These technologies include

1. Management software

It provides administrators with centralized control over the applications running on it, making it possible to optimize availability, resource utilization, and security in the private cloud environment.

2. Automation

It automates the tasks, such as server integrations and provisioning, which must be performed repeatedly and manually. Automation minimizes the need for human intervention and gives self-service resources.

3. Virtualization

It provides an abstraction to IT resources from their underlying infrastructure and then pooled into the unbounded resource pools of storage, computing, networking, and memory capacity divided across multiple virtual machines. Virtualization allows maximum hardware utilization by removing the physical hardware constraints and sharing it across various applications and users.

Moreover, private cloud customers can leverage cloud-native application practices and architecture, such as containers, DevOps, and microservices, to bring greater flexibility and efficiency.

Benefits of private cloud

Advantages of private cloud include

• Freedom to customize software and hardware_ Private cloud users can customize software as needed with add-ons via custom development. They can also customize servers in any way they want.
• Full control over software and hardware choices_ Private cloud users are free to buy the software and hardware they prefer or services provided by the cloud service providers.
• Fully enforced compliance_ Private cloud users are not forced to rely on the regulatory compliance provided by the service providers.
• Greater visibility and insights into access control and security because all workloads execute behind the user’s firewalls.

Challenges or Limitations of private cloud

Here are some considerations that IT stakeholders must review before using the private cloud.

• Capacity utilization_ Organizations are fully responsible for enhancing capacity utilization under the private cloud. An under-utilized deployment can cost significantly to a business.
• Up-front costs_ The cost of required hardware to run a private cloud can be high, and it will need an expert to set up, maintain and handle the environment.
• Scalability_It may take extra cost and time to scale up the resources if a business needs additional computing power from a private cloud.

Is hybrid cloud the best option for you?

Because not everything belongs in the public cloud, many forward-thinking businesses opt for a hybrid cloud solution. Hybrid clouds combine the advantages of both public and private clouds while utilizing existing data center infrastructure.

Cloud computing is becoming more and more popular, but many businesses are still unsure which type of cloud is right for them. This article explored the pros and cons of hybrid, public, and private clouds and provided advice on which type of cloud is best for your organization. Protected Harbor offers a wide range of cloud computing services to help businesses reduce costs and increase efficiency by outsourcing data storage or remote office functions. It can host a wide range of applications, including e-mail, video conferencing, online training, backups, software development, and much more. Protected Harbor is the right choice for businesses of all sizes. We are providing a free IT Audit for a limited time. Get a free IT consultation for your business today.

Why Are Cloud Services Taking Over?

With the rising popularity of cloud services, many businesses are migrating to create their remote servers. There are many reasons you might choose cloud services over setting up your hardware, but all business owners should consider simple economics.

The days when businesses had to rely on the availability, provision, and ability to have huge spaces to run their operations are long gone. The world has evolved, and startups are flourishing because they are facilitated. No office turns into a small space, then eventually into a vast building rapidly. What enables all of this is the Cloud.

One benefit of this is that you can use several tools and features to protect your data from intruders and hackers who might otherwise gain access to any information stored on your primary server. Cloud storage space is often much cheaper than in-house. Cloud Services are taking over due for a plethoric number of reasons. Henceforth let us have a look at them in detail.

Improved Storage and Convenient Backup

Storage is provided to businesses through massive servers contained in the Cloud. Therefore, companies do not need to rent out prominent places to hold their servers or buy such servers. Then, there is also the presence of excellent backups since the Cloud service providers have their backup servers and are responsible for it. It is their job to back things up and not the businesses’. This also leads to a drastic improvement in its performance to its clients.

Scalability, Flexibility, and Performance

In an excellent turn of events for businesses, Cloud Technology has been designed to be scaled to match the alternating IT requirements of companies. Therefore, as a company grows, it is evident that more storage space and bandwidth will be required to keep up with the ever-increasing traffic on its applications, websites, and other services. So, to accommodate the re-scaling of companies and ensure optimum performance under heavy loads, Cloud servers can be deployed automatically. This also improves speed and minimizes downtime of web applications, amongst many others.

Cost-Efficiency

As we have seen above, the lack of required space and servers significantly reduces the running costs through Cloud services. Overhead costs related to software updates, server hardware updates, and server management also reduce this. Another thing that facilitates this decrease in operational expenses is that Cloud services can be used on a pay-per-use basis. As a result, businesses can utilize the same benefits they want and guarantee a return on their investments.

Lack of Responsibility Towards Malware Attacks and Data Protection

The data of businesses fall under the responsibility of the Cloud service provider. At face value, it may seem unsafe since another company has access to your business’s data. However, this is far from reality.

Your business data is kept secure due to exceptionally well-rounded and dexterously designed contracts, with accentuation given to even the tiniest details. Therefore, once a malware attack comes into motion, your business is not the liable party; it is the company acting as the Cloud service provider.

This opens the doors to many advantages. When a malware attack occurs, a business utilizing a Cloud service can go on its merry way and continue focusing on improving its services. At the back-end, the Cloud service provider will take care of removing the actual malware.

• Automatic Software Updates

Through automatic software updates, Cloud service providers can ensure that whatever issue caused a breach can be covered. Since the business software at play is running on the Cloud servers, the provider can step in seamlessly to remove the malware.

• Automatic Software Integration

Once a newer methodology to prevent malware attacks or data leakages rolls out, the new feature will be distributed to all users using the business service, whether in an application or a website. Again, the business’ service is running on the Cloud service provider’s server, so one updation in the Cloud servers updates the distributed version for all users.

There is no reliance on each hardware component needing to be updated in a company since all its workers and users will be incorporating software that runs on the Cloud.

In the case of a backup failure, there is no need to worry since a Cloud service has multiple backups. For any business, creating such backups will prove to be tedious, overwhelming, and perhaps even out of reach to manage on-premises.

Similarly, covering up is a headache for the Cloud service provider when there is data leakage. For a business, it will be business as usual, as they say.

Business Continuation

There is always that element of risk involved when it comes to businesses. Unforeseen circumstances could cause a company to go bankrupt, and if it is based entirely on the Cloud, it may never be able to recover. This is because it has to sell all its offices, which would entail the servers present and all the other equipment when there is a lack of finances. A sophisticated backup may not be present in data loss situations since it is expensive and likely to be located on the same site. Therefore, all company data might be lost when a natural disaster occurs.

This is where Cloud service providers kick in, whether a business disaster or a natural disaster. A business can go online and remote if it is forced to sell all its offices due to financial constraints, thus reducing its costs instead of firing its employees or shutting down. There is simply no issue in case of data corruption or loss since Cloud service providers are both experienced and can provide multiple reliable backups.

The above results in the continuity of a business even under challenging times and situations.

Conclusion

All the reasons mentioned above make it imperative for a business to desire to incorporate Cloud services to accomplish its endeavors and run its operations. Since the entire world runs on companies, whether small or large, Cloud services are taking over!

Businesses are moving to cloud-based services because it makes their security and management more effortless. Since all data is stored on remote servers, there’s less risk of data theft or loss, which is a massive benefit for any company. Going with a private cloud service also means that you only have to pay for what you use, saving you money in the long run.

If you’re still on the fence about a move to the cloud, consider all of its benefits, then move to a cloud service provider or an MSP. From accessibility to cost savings, the cloud is an essential business tool that can help streamline practically every aspect of your business. Now is the time to upgrade to a private cloud.

The private cloud by Protected Harbor is more than just a backup solution. It improves the speed and efficiency of your business by providing flexibility, cost control, and enhanced security. With its multi-tenant design, you have access to all the advantages of a cloud solution without the risk of compromising security or performance. And with the ability to interconnect with the public cloud, you can take advantage of cost-effective solutions whenever they are available. Please take the next step to upgrade; contact.

Virtualization vs cloud computing

Cloud computing and virtualization are both technologies that were developed to maximize the use of computing resources while reducing the cost of those resources. They are also mentioned frequently when discussing high availability and redundancy. While it is not uncommon to hear people discuss them interchangeably; they are very different approaches to solving the problem of maximizing the use of available resources. They differ in many ways and that also leads to some important considerations when selecting between the two.

Virtualization: More Servers on the Same Hardware

It used to be that if you needed more computing power for an application, you had to purchase additional hardware. Redundancy systems were based on having duplicate hardware sitting in standby mode in case something should fail. The problem was that as CPUs grew more powerful and had more than one core, a lot of computing resources were going unused. This obviously costs companies a great deal of money. Enter virtualization. Simply stated, virtualization is a technique that allows you to run more than one server on the same hardware. Typically, one server is the host server and controls the access to the physical server’s resources. One or more virtual servers then run within containers provided by the host server. The container is transparent to the virtual server so the operating system does not need to be aware of the virtual environment. This allows the server to be consolidated which reduces hardware costs. Less physical servers also mean less power which further reduces cost. Most virtualization systems allow the virtual servers to be easily moved from one physical host to another. This makes it very simple for system administrators to reconfigure the servers based on resource demand or to move a virtual server from a failing physical node. Virtualization helps reduce complexity by reducing the number of physical hosts but it still involves purchasing servers and software and maintaining your infrastructure. Its greatest benefit is reducing the cost of that infrastructure for companies by maximizing the usage of the physical resources.

Cloud Computing: Measured Resources, Pay for What You Use

While virtualization may be used to provide cloud computing, cloud computing is quite different from virtualization. Cloud computing may look like virtualization because it appears that your application is running on a virtual server detached from any reliance or connection to a single physical host. And they are similar in that fashion. However, cloud computing can be better described as a service where virtualization is part of physical infrastructure.

Cloud computing grew out of the concept of utility computing. Essentially, utility computing was the belief that computing resources and hardware would become a commodity to the point that companies would purchase computing resources from a central pool and pay only for the number of CPU cycles, RAM, storage and bandwidth that they used. These resources would be metered to allow pay for what you use model much like you buy electricity from the electric company. This is how it became known as utility computing. It is common for cloud computing to be distributed across many servers. This provides redundancy, high availability and even geographic redundancy. This also makes cloud computing very flexible.

It is easy to add resources to your application. You just use them, just like you just use the electricity when you need it. Cloud computing has been designed with scalability in mind. The biggest drawback of cloud computing is that, of course, you do not control the servers. Your data is out there in the cloud and you have to trust the provider that it is safe. Many cloud computing services offer SLAs that promise to deliver a level of service and safety but it is critical to read the fine print. A failure of the cloud service could result in a loss of your data.

A practical comparison (Virtualization vs CLOUD COMPUTING)

VIRTUALIZATION

Virtualization is a technology that allows you to create multiple simulated environments or dedicated resources from a single, physical hardware system. Software called a hypervisor connects directly to that hardware and allows you to split 1 system into separate, distinct, and secure environments known as virtual machines (VMs). These VMs rely on the hypervisor’s ability to separate the machine’s resources from the hardware and distribute them appropriately.

CLOUD COMPUTING

Cloud computing is a set of principles and approaches to deliver compute, network, and storage infrastructure resources, services, platforms, and applications to users on-demand across any network. These infrastructure resources, services, and applications are sourced from clouds, which are pools of virtual resources orchestrated by management and automation software so they can be accessed by users on-demand through self-service portals supported by automatic scaling and dynamic resource allocation.