There’s a huge discussion in the nonprofit space about moving data to the cloud. Most of this discussion is around ease of access over security. It’s already proven that cloud computing is revolutionizing the nonprofit space. It’s allowing people, wherever they are in the world to access important information that will expedite a process that would have taken twice as long. However, others believe that by moving to the cloud, nonprofits are sacrificing crucial security measures. Well, we’re here to tell you that there are still ways to secure your information and protect your integrity as a nonprofit.
Before we get into security, it would be nice to clarify what the “cloud” actually means. No, it doesn’t mean that information is moving to the sky. That’s just silly. When people mention the cloud, they mean that instead of having data housed on servers (think massive data centers) on the premises, it would be stored off-site and accessed remotely by your organization.
There are many services that offer cloud security but when shopping around, you should be looking for a credible company that has multiple servers. Why, you ask? This actually makes it harder for hackers to infiltrate the systems because there’s too much to go through before sounding off any alarms. Here at Green Skies, we’re big Microsoft people for good reason. They’re a large company that has been around for ages and has the server power to keep your data secure. Additionally, they offer a hefty discount to nonprofits, including offering their entire suite for the life of your organization. Google is a big name as well and also offers a wide variety of services through their suite of apps (think, Gmail, Google Docs, etc).
We had mentioned productivity earlier in this blog. With Microsoft and Google, it’s easier than ever to backup and recover your information. Remember that email we mentioned? Well if it’s in the cloud and your computer dies, your email lives on in the servers you intelligently decided to invest in. With everything in the cloud, the recovery of your information in the case that it’s lost in your system is easy as pie.
For more information about securing your data with Microsoft, here are some resources to take a look at!
Cloud App Security - Microsoft
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