The Seven Deadly Sins Of Business Computing

Gluttony, sloth, greed – they’re all members of the seven deadly sins of life. But did you know that there are also sins associated with business computing too? Check them out below:

Failing To Count Costs

Thanks to slick marketing and subscription service, business IT costs seem low these days. Everyone is offering cut-price products that seem like they are great value. 

However, when you run the math, you often realize that it’s a different story. Costs relating to compliance, documentation and hardware can quickly get out of control when you don’t manage them effectively. 

The trick here is to find quick IT support offering discount prices. Avoid going to any vendor who asks you to pay over the odds. 

Believing Cloud Security Is Better Than It Is

While cloud security is generally quite good, business has gone from one extreme to another in terms of its attitude towards it. Only a few years ago, companies believed that the cloud wasn’t secure enough for their purposes, so they carried on using legacy systems. Now, it’s the opposite. Firms only trust the cloud and believe that it can protect them against any and all cyberattacks – it can’t. 

Buying Cloud Products Without Cybersecurity Involvement

Buying cloud products without any cybersecurity involvement usually means that you’re going in blind. All you’re seeing is the benefits the vendor is promising, not the inevitable risks.

We’re not just talking about hackers, either. Whenever you add a new app to your stack, you need to consider how it dovetails with the rest of the ecosystem. You may be able to slot it in without any issues at all, but mostly, that’s not possible. 

Alwaye get cloud products with cybersecurity involvement. Never try to wing it or go it alone. If you have pockets of cloud services that don’t match up to the rest of your systems, you can find yourself in trouble quickly. 

Believing That Risk And Responsibility Lies With The Provider

It can be tempting to buy IT solutions from third party vendors and just assume that they will take care of everything for you. Sometimes, they will even promise you an off-the-shelf or turn-key service.

You shouldn’t pay any attention to claims like these. While they are providing you with a service, it is ultimately your responsibility to make sure that they are doing it in the right way. That’s because it is you that the courts and state will come over if there is a data breach, not anyone else. 

Failing To Remain Independent

While it’s nice to place some reliance on cloud providers, you don’t want to depend on them entirely for your operations. You still need backup systems that will allow you to carry on working in the event of a major shutdown or failure. 

Unfortunately, many companies fail to heed these warnings. They expect their providers to do everything for them, and that’s dangerous. 

It’s not just dependence, though, that’s the issue. It’s also a matter of cost. Sometimes hosting applications in the cloud is a good idea, but sometimes it actually pays better to shift them back to enterprise. Having this flexibility allows firms to cut costs opportunistically, but it is only possible with the right infrastructure. If it’s not there, it won’t happen.

There’s also operational risk to consider. Firms need to be able to switch between at least two, independent core systems to carry on providing services to their customers. Any break could be very expensive indeed. 

Not Establishing A Secure API

Companies need to establish secure APIs to allow cloud users to explore all their services and apps. Unfortunately, many developers compared APIs to passwords. They’re just not particularly good at securing valuable information, particularly if they have flaws. 

When you have a secure API in place, though, you may experience economic benefits. Security is boosted, but you can also sometimes help developers monetize the cloud and receive a kickback as compensation. 

Lack Of Proper Identity Management

The last deadly sin of business computing is failing to use the proper identity management solution. Ideally, you should be using enterprise-level systems to check that individual users have the authority to access multiple systems. Unfortunately, most cloud providers allow virtually anyone to sign up, with relatively few, if any, checks and balances. Just because that’s their policy, though, doesn’t mean that businesses should stand idly by. Where possible, you should be controlling who can log on, and who can’t, to prevent a security breach. Make sure that you work out your access model in advance.