This often used quote is from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s inaugural address in 1933. The full sentence it’s taken from is, “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” Roosevelt was addressing the country’s fear of its future during the depths of the depression. Today, however, I think the statement can be applied to cloud technologies.
A few months ago we brought on a new client, for which our Jubilee online bankruptcy software would have been the perfect solution. However, they insisted on going with our older desktop application because they wanted to be able to tell their clients that their data was secure and protected.
I can understand their apprehension, but just how safe are their local data servers? Are they backed up regularly? Do they have and maintain good anti-virus protection to prevent ransomware? Are they locked in a secure room that can’t be broken in to? Do they have GEO redundancy? Is their building fireproof? Is their network closed to the outside world or is it connected to the internet, in which case it’s really just a local cloud that has far less security going for it than a professionally maintained cloud service. Is regular penetration testing occurring? And just how well do you really know your IT provider and all of its employees?
We should always be weary of new technologies, but sometimes we have simply forgotten how vulnerable our old systems are because we have used them for so long. Your local data systems have never really been very safe, we just feel like they are because we can touch and see them. A more common example of cloud versus local would be banking. Do you feel your money is safer in a bank account (which is really quite virtual) or do you keep it stored at home somewhere? Fear of economic collapse aside, I think we would all mostly agree that the bank account is safer – and far more convenient.
Still have questions? Get the answers in our next Jubilee webinar.