Data security is top concern for small businesses. It supports decision-making, improves efficiency, and helps companies stay ahead of the competition. However, small businesses must carefully handle the vast amount of collected and stored data. Some myriad regulations and requirements apply to the collection and storage of data, and they can be challenging to interpret, let alone follow. But followed they must be because failure to comply can result in significant legal and financial consequences.
If your small business is struggling to comply with the regulations surrounding data, you’re not alone. Organizations everywhere are grappling with data privacy and security rules that are constantly evolving. You must continuously stay informed and adjust your policies and practices to avoid hefty fines and reputational damage.
Immutable storage offers always-there protection
Data security compliance is a daunting challenge, to be sure. But there are solutions. Immutable storage is one of the most valuable tools for complying with data regulations. This technology helps organizations, big and small, ensure compliance by providing a storage system where data cannot be altered, modified, or deleted once written. The system automatically takes continuous data snapshots and stores them securely, so a business can recover to a recent point if there is ever an incident. Immutability is especially useful in industries that require strict data compliance, such as healthcare, finance, and government.
Immutability complies with the rules because it keeps data safe. It protects against data breaches and cyberattacks. With immutable storage, even if an attacker gains access to the network, it’s challenging for the attacker to do damage because the data snapshots can’t be modified, overwritten, or deleted.
Immutable storage also helps organizations meet regulatory requirements for data retention. In some industries, organizations must retain data for a specific period to comply with regulations. Immutable storage can ensure that data is retained and cannot be deleted or modified before the retention period has expired.
Cloud providers make compliance easier
Another simple and effective way to ensure data security compliance is to partner with a cloud-based backup and recovery provider. These providers offer many advantages that make it easier for organizations to keep data safe and comply with many data regulations.
Cloud-based solutions offer scalability and flexibility that traditional backup and recovery solutions often don’t. These solutions are essential for organizations with rapidly growing data volumes, as legacy solutions may struggle to keep up. With a cloud-based solution, you can quickly expand your backup and recovery capabilities to meet your needs without investing in additional hardware or infrastructure.
You can also work closely with your cloud solution provider to stay informed about updates and changes to compliance requirements. Good cloud providers will help you regularly review and update your backup and recovery strategies to ensure they comply with ever-changing regulations.
Many cloud providers also offer geo-redundancy and data residency options to help organizations meet data sovereignty requirements. Cloud providers also offer a shared responsibility model, whereby they take responsibility for the security of their infrastructure while organizations focus on securing their data and applications. As an added benefit, cloud-based solutions can offer ease of management. For instance, cloud providers typically handle maintenance and updates, which frees your IT staff to focus on strategic tasks.
Final takeaway
All organizations that collect and store data—which is now the vast majority—must contend with an accelerating feedback loop. As data grows in volume and value, hackers target it with increasing energy and expertise, and regulators impose more rules to keep it safe. By taking a few key steps, organizations can keep pace with that loop and keep their data secure to drive their business to success.
Ahsan Siddiqui is the Director of Product Management at Arcserve.
“Data Security Breach” by Visual Content is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
