Certain advances in technology such as the internet have bought many advantages both internally through communication tools such as email and externally through the use of online marketing but alongside these many benefits, companies have been faced with the threat from hackers.
From NASA to Citibank, it seems nobody is safe from the hacker accessing sensitive information on their networks and with these increased risks to security; it is easy to understand reluctance towards new types of software on the market such as SaaS, which are hosted on the web. Why would you entrust your company’s valuable data to a third party web-based software vendor?
Well, as recent report by Gartner Research demonstrates 90% of organizations are doing just that. With plans to either increase or maintain their use of SaaS, these businesses are acknowledging the benefits of using an on-demand service, which included greater flexibility and the lower cost implication of the SaaS model. As for the question of SaaS security, it is important to remember that to date not one SaaS vendor has reported any significant security breach or data loss.
In fact, the most widely-publicised security breaches happened where users systems were contained within companies’ premises and control. Take the example of the Radisson hotel chain who, according to Saugatech, reported a six-month-long breach, “at some of the hotels in the chain, which may have included unauthorized access to credit card numbers, expiration dates, and cardholder names.” This, as with so many other cases, was the fault of internal staff. When taking into account that 60% of all incidents are directly linked to “incidents executed by or the fault of internal staff” and 40% are from internal forces trying to hack into the companies’ internal systems, the enterprises’ supposedly safe and secure internal systems can be questioned.
Companies can build security checks into their existing applications and systems but this can be extremely expensive. SaaS, on the other hand, has the ability to architect security measures from the word go and due to economies-of-scale, can produce products that are more secure and better managed than companies’ internal systems.
4Retail, an on demand collaboration tool for retail, has invested heavily in security as their clients have sensitive data on their systems. Not only has 4Retail withstood penetration tests in the past, but the developers also work constantly to improve all aspects of the software. The very nature of 4Retail – web-based and managed from a central location – means updates are released faster and security measures are constantly reviewed. This advantage makes the idea of implementing SaaS into a business strategy all the more appealing.
Rather than being a risk to a business, 4Retail and the SaaS model could be the answer to protecting company data as it has rigorous tried and tested security measures already in place.