Data Security and Collaboration: Ensuring One Doesn’t Negate the Other

In the early months of 2020, Marriott patrons awoke to a bitter news.

The personal data of 5.2 million of them was breached, data pertaining to name, gender, geography, contact information, and linked account data of customer loyalty accounts.

What really hit home for Marriott was that it had been the victim of a similar hacker attack just around 2 years ago. The recent attack was carried out by accessing the login credentials of two employees, showcasing the poor protocols in place for customer data protection.

Perhaps one of the biggest lessons Marriott learned was that if you need to protect your customer data, you need to implement multifactor authentication.

Data security was and still remains one of the most crucial aspects of life on the internet.

The No-Leak Protocols of Cloud Infrastructure

Before life moved to the cloud, organizations that stored data on local servers operated with the confidence of having complete control over their data because the running of the infrastructure was somewhat under their control. 

Moving to the cloud infrastructure was of course the smartest choice because of the vast number of advantages it provides. But with it was pushed to the spotlight the problem of data security.

When data is stored on third-party servers distributed locally, as a client organization, how do you ensure that your data is safe? As a service/platform provider, how do you ensure that your customer data is unbreachable?

Client organizations have to place absolute trust in the service providers to take care of their data and keep cloud, shall we say, leak-free?

On the other hand, collaboration?

Now throw into this equation, the necessity of collaboration. As the world retreated into itself during the past couple of months, the two factors that most stumped teams across organizations were effective communication and collaboration. For organizations big and small and even for freelancers, these two aspects came to define their success.

And this is a trend that is here to stay.

While we use easy-to-use collaborative tools to create and innovate, data security once again becomes a pressing problem. How do we open up a document or an app for everyone to collaborate on without compromising on security?

That is the billion dollar question.

Choosing the infrastructure wisely

The answer lies in choosing the cloud infrastructure wisely. Because let’s face it. Cloud is the way to go. System-independent, platform-agnostic applications are the only way we can keep pace with a world that’s always on the go. If you’re to access your apps at all ungodly hours, you need to access them from anywhere, anytime, and on anything.

Service providers like Google, while providing the collaborative tools, also provide impressive data security. For example, G Suite comes protected by Google’s multi-tiered world-class security in both software and hardware. A commendable offering from Google is the fact that Google makes the same infrastructure it works on available to its customers, ensuring that they get the same set of protocols and the same level of security.

If you’re an SME owner or a freelancer, the price you pay for this security is a bargain. Ultimately, what one looks for while choosing an app like G Suite is the freedom to innovate, collaborate, and communicate across teams and across locations without the fear of a breach.

Because no one needs a Marriott fiasco anytime for their business.

If you’re interested in the multiple ways G Suite will be beneficial to your business, get in touch with us. Econz is a Google Premium Partner with thousands of G Suite customers across Bangalore and Kochi.