What Impact Do Cloud Services Have on Small Businesses?

Storing your files on a local hard drive alone is fast becoming a thing of the past. An estimated 85% of businesses worldwide are making use of cloud storage. It may be time for your company to pick one of the best cloud storage services available and join the cloud. Some people still have reservations and questions about small business cloud solutions, such as: how secure will the files be? How costly is the process? Many of these concerns are unfounded, however, and cloud services should be a priority for any small business. For small businesses, there are many benefits to using cloud storage: it enables you to access your files wherever you are, you can manage whom they’re shared with, and multiple users can edit them. Contrary to the concerns that many people have, it’s also a secure, safe, and cost-efficient option.

Why is Cloud Services Best for Small Businesses?

• Anywhere access: With many people now working from home, businesses are less focused around one central office. It would be impractical for every employee to have a hard drive containing all the company’s files. With the business’s documents on a cloud server, you and your employees can access them from anywhere, which makes remote working much easier.

• Usability of interfaces: Some people are concerned that cloud storage systems may be complicated to use compared to the simple task of storing files on a computer’s hard drive. However, most popular cloud storage services are well designed to make it easy and intuitive to get started.

• File-sharing options: Besides giving multiple users access to all your files, many cloud storage providers make it possible to set different privacy levels on different folders and files, so you can precisely manage who can access what. This is usually a simple matter of selecting a file or folder in your cloud service app and clicking on an option to adjust the privacy settings.

• Multi-user collaboration: With local hard-drive-based file storage, having two users open a file at the same time can cause serious problems. Either the system simply won’t allow it, or the users risk overwriting each other’s changes. But with cloud storage, it’s possible for multiple users to not only see but also edit the same file in real-time, even if they’re in different parts of the world. This can be useful in many situations, such as when multiple people need to work together to write a report or when a company’s entire sales team needs to modify a spreadsheet to log their clients. Most services keep track of who has made what changes.

• Time-saving synchronization: One thing that can slow down your work processes when using hard-drive-based storage is the time taken to copy files over to the device that you need them on. With cloud storage solutions, you can synchronize your files across devices, which significantly reduces such delays.

Atlanta Hardwood Flooring Discusses the Benefits of Having Hardwood Flooring for Holiday Parties

Atlanta Hardwood Flooring knows we’ve all been to one of those parties where the hosts are mortified after a guest spills red wine, holiday dinner or some other stain-causing mess on their floor. Gracious hosts tell their guests not to worry about it. Hosts with hardwood flooring know they don’t have to worry about it either.

Hardwood flooring in Atlanta offers party guests and hosts a myriad of benefits that start with a beautiful new look and continue from there. With hardwood floors, there are no worries about the guests tracking in snow or mud, as the post party clean up is quick and easy. Hosts, and clumsy guests, can set aside worries about stains. Even pizza dropped on Atlanta hardwoods is no big deal.

Choosing hardwood floors in Atlanta creates a natural beauty and warmth in your home, making it more inviting and more comfortable for your guests. Child-friendly hardwood flooring means your family and friends are more able to relax and enjoy the holidays, knowing they won’t be permanently damaging your beautiful home.

With the quick clean up of an Atlanta hardwood floor, you may find that you want to entertain more. Or, it may just be nice to appreciate that after having your family and friends visit for the holidays, the clean up doesn’t take days. There’s no need to hire expensive carpet cleaners and move all the furniture when you have hardwood floors.

“There’s something inviting about a shining wood floor,” said PJ Hart, founder. “It lets your guest know that you want them to be able to relax and have fun, but still take pride in your home.”

For more information about the benefits of hardwood flooring, visit Atlanta Hardwood Flooring at http://atlantahardwoodflooring.com.

About Atlanta Hardwood Flooring:

Family owned and operated, Atlanta Hardwood Flooring is the ultimate source of excellence and quality for hardwood flooring in Atlanta. Founded in 1997 by industry veteran PJ Hart, Atlanta Hardwood Flooring installs and refinishes hardwood floors with unmatched expertise and attention to detail. Atlanta Hardwood Flooring offers a wide range of products and services to provide Atlanta homeowners with the best quality hardwood floors available.

For more information, visit http://atlantahardwoodflooring.com.

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Anne DeVito
Lead Content Developer
Cardinal Web Solutions

http://www.CardinalWebSolutions.com

Data Security: Explanation, Types, and Why it Matters

The protection of digital data from destructive forces and the prevention of unauthorized user access such as cyberattacks or data breaches is called data security. Simply put, it includes both the practice and the technology of protecting useful and sensitive company and customer data. The data can comprise personal or financial information.

Even though there are various data security challenges, several data security systems are also in existence. The latter are efficient enough to keep the data safe from unauthorized accesses and attacks.

Different types of Data Security

Authentication:
With time, the standard process of authentication has upgraded. It revolves around multiple ways to grant access such as biometrics, swipe cards, and security tokens. The easiest way right now is the use of single sign-on technology. This can be used to authenticate the user to access multiple applications, systems, and platforms. This process works with one security token.

To protect against data breaches, the recommendation or advice revolves around the usage of authentication along with authorization. The reason is simple – it boosts the data security. Even in case of verification, the credentials of the user are matched to the details stored inside the database.

Access Control:
The process of authentication and authorization is called access control. Discretionary access control allows entry to data. It is based on the identification of users or groups.

The role-based access control allows access based on organizational role and users can be allowed to access only specific information. Mandatory access control allows a system administrator to solely control access to all information.

Backups & Recovery:
In the event of data corruption, data breach, system failure, or a disaster, data security should be the priority. What it needs is proper planning to save files from being lost.

The daily backup has been considered one of the important aspects of data security. With the backup, a copy of the data should be stored on the cloud or a disk. This can act as an added advantage, where the data can be recovered if it is lost or accidentally deleted from the main system.

Encryption:
With the use of an algorithm, called a cipher, the data encryption software improves data security. It mainly does the work by encrypting the files. An encryption key is used to turn normal text into encrypted ciphertext. The ciphered data is unreadable to an unauthorized user. This is due to the factor that without the authorized key, data cannot be decrypted.

Data Masking:
The software of data masking hides the data by masking letters and numbers with proxy characters. The data remains there behind the masking and can only be changed back to its original form with an authorized user.

Why is Data Security Important?

The most valuable asset for a business is the information and data. Both hold the key to the success and growth of the company. The priority of a business should be to protect the data from unauthorized access. The good news is that there are a number of ways to do it.

The data security challenges like system failure, theft, virus, theft and more can be the reason for the data breach. The involvement of the internet comes with the risk of data breaching. It can lead to the tampering or destruction of data. That is why the data security on cloud needs expertise management from the provider.

The protection of data not only saves the file but also the long-term credibility of the provider. The main focus lies in safeguarding the reputation built over the years that can be destroyed in a matter of seconds.

Conclusion

Data security should be of top priority for any of the businesses. The entire working and reputation of the firm depend upon how safe the data is on the server. The key steps that help to ensure data security lies on:

Implementation of authentication control

Access control
Backups and recovery
Encryption
Data masking
More of such ways to secure the data
These data security features ensure the protection of the data during:

System failure
Theft
Virus
Data breaching
Data loss
Disaster/ accident
When it comes to data security on cloud, concepts like the implementation of multi-factor authentication and setting strict permissions become important.

While choosing a cloud hosting service, the security of the provider should be explored broadly. This should always be seen as a precautionary aspect as the complete data goes directly into the hands of third parties. Remember, reliability, trust, and security of the service provider should be atop of every SMBs’ priority list.