SaaS Security – Sleep Well At Night

One of the most common concerns that we hear when proposing Software as a Service (SaaS) is data security. Because the data is being transferred offsite and the software solution is supported offsite, court and agency officials feel there is a greater chance of something unpleasant happening to the information—some of which could be extremely sensitive or harmful if lost or broken into.

This is a valid concern, one that is not exclusive to the criminal justice industry. A lot of people are understandably uneasy about the security of their information, and a lot of thought has been put into overcoming this problem; there are solutions. Understanding how two words are applied to SaaS solutions will help you rest easy at night. These two words are: redundancy and encryption.

Data center “redundancy” helps protect your data from two things, natural disasters and hardware failure. Natural disasters are things like earthquakes, storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, lightning strikes, etc. Taking it a step further, we could also include things like terrorist attacks, massive infrastructure failure (roads, electrical, etc.), or even a utility worker having a bad day that slices through your network cable—really any outside force that messes with you getting your job done. The thing to consider is that many of these things are a very real concern for your information wherever it is house, whether on or offsite. However, courts and agencies are still uneasy that in the event of a disaster someplace else, they will not be able to access their data. This is where redundancy comes into play.

Redundancy is a fancy word for duplication of data. Most data centers are not centralized and have at least two geographical locations. If a disaster happens to one, your data can still be accessed from the second location. If disasters strike both locations at the same time, I’d forget that trip to Vegas because you are coming up short on luck; chances of that happening are slim to none. Redundancy is in place to protect your data against disasters; the more redundancy, the exponentially less chance you have of losing your data.

Redundancy also protects against hardware failure. The hard drive of your server (the part that actually stores your information) is mechanical; it has moving parts—although we are seeing less of that, but that’s a whole new topic. Anything with moving parts has a chance to fail. While many technological advances have been made to increase the longevity of equipment, things don’t last forever. There’s always a chance that your hard drive will die during the night, and you wake up to a blank database. Data centers add another level of redundancy: hard drive redundancy. Datacenters store duplicates of your database on multiple hard drives within their center, so if a piece of equipment fails your data is still accessible. Again, the more hard drive redundancy, the less chance of losing your data.

Finally, data “encryption” protects your data against hackers or interception. Encryption, in layman’s terms, is a code/cipher that your computer and the datacenter have. When you send data, your computer codes your information and then transfers it to the datacenter. The datacenter uses the cipher to unscramble your data and Eureka! your data is securely transferred and stored. At New Dawn Technologies, the encryption our datacenter uses is the same encryption that your internet banking uses to protect your personal financial information. It’s safe and secure.

I’d like to hear what your thoughts are on SaaS security. Please post your comments below!