Critical Issues MSPs Must Address for a Cloud Security Strategy

Written by Michael Brown 1
April 15, 2015

Here are four critical steps for MSPs to keep at top of mind when implementing customer strategies for cloud data management.

iPhone, Target, Home Depot; with each security breach we hear of, alarms are going off in the minds of business owners who have their data in the cloud or are considering working with an MSP. Cloud-based file sharing comes with a unique set of IT security challenges and it’s more important than ever for you to prepare a comprehensive strategy for protecting data and make sure your clients know you are addressing every issue.

Your clients are right to be concerned about their data security. The consequences of not employing an effective strategy for sensitive data management can be severe and may take businesses years to recover from. As their MSP, your job is to make sure business owners know if you acknowledge these issues while planning your cloud strategy, making the move to cloud sharing can greatly increase your data security.

Warn your clients of these four critical steps businesses should never skip when implementing a strategy for cloud data management.

1. Define the Scope of Your Client’s Data

Take inventory of all enterprise data, where it all rests, and the paths it takes to get there. Define what data is sensitive and just how sensitive. Meaning, what are the risks if that data is breached? Stolen?

Once you’ve identified the width and breadth of your data, make it clear who will need to own the data, where it will reside, who will need access, and who will be accountable. The perfect time to address access controls for users and admins is before you begin moving everything to the cloud. It’s also important for the business to determine which data is obsolete and may pose unnecessary risk.

2. Be prepared for the worst

Hope for the best but be prepared for the worst. It’s the safest way for businesses and MSPs to think about their data. Cybercrime is not diminishing and it’s better to protect against it than to think you are not subject to it. Make sure your cloud sharing plan includes a data security strategy or that it works with your client’s existing IT security.

3. Encryption Management

Businesses need to think about their data in a deeper way. With cloud sharing, data can’t be protected solely in a secure server, it needs to be safe while on the move. How is data protected when it’s at rest, and in motion? Businesses that implement custom encryption for data have infinitely stronger protection so that WHEN a breach occurs, data is still protected from the inside out.

4. BYOD Security

Cloud-based file sharing brings up questions about employees using personal devices for work-related tasks and communication. This is another foggy area of concern that MSPs are finding the need to clear up quickly. Gartner predicts that by 2017 more than half of employers will ask or require employees to supply their own devices for work. Rather than regulate and inhibit employees, businesses are learning to adopt the BYOD revolution and reap the benefits that go with it, but this means a proper BYOD protocol needs a place within the sensitive data management strategy.

Don’t let your clients overlook these crucial issues when helping with your next cloud implementation. Be ready to help them find exactly which MSP services solve the unique problems of cloud-based file sharing.