In the context of iVEDiX, we would immediately argue that the risk depends on us. Cloud computing can be secure if we are cautious and take a few specific factors into account. At first glance, a company may feel naked when considering the fact that a cloud computing provider has to be trusted with its data, knowledge and security. After all, who can trust cloud computing when we don’t know who monitors these devices and how security is managed?

After a little bit of introspection, we come to realize that these things do not matter as much if we take steps of our own to help mitigate the risk. We can equate this to storing money and assets in a bank. We trust others with the safety and security of our other assets, and this is a similar situation with our data.

First, iVEDiX identified what data to store in the cloud and what critical data to keep only locally. For example, sensitive white papers or patent documents or confidential customer data have not been stored in the cloud. In the unlikely event of a breach, these most important documents and databases would be kept safe from the intruders.

However, due to convenience, it made sense to store any code that requires multiple-user collaboration on the cloud due to its criticality, the shared nature of the data, and the high-frequency of updates. The daily back-ups by the provider allow us to have a constant recovery point should something catastrophic happen. As such, redundancy options provided by the cloud provider along with one’s own backup and security procedures mitigates the risk of data loss or theft at a moderate price and minimum effort from the development team.

Of course, since the topic of this blog post is security, we need to talk about how to make sure the cloud solution personnel, or malicious external intruders, do not “steal” any iVEDiX code? The answer is: the files must be encrypted when they are placed on the cloud. We have been leveraging a SVN feature that encrypts exports from the code repository; the only way to do the decryption is by knowing a secret 1024 bit long key known by the authorized developers. Obviously, the key is exactly the kind of confidential data you don’t want to store on the cloud, just as you wouldn’t give the key to your safe deposit box to your banker.

Again, here we see the importance in selecting which data to store on the cloud and what data to be kept protected at home. Due diligence on the part of the company can allow them to use all the advantages of a cloud computing solution while mitigating the security issues.

The advantages to an SMB of using the cloud as part of the solution set are many. When you factor BI into the equation, additional opportunities present themselves. From an operational perspective, there are three primary boons to using a cloud-based solution.

First, is the reduction of initial hardware purchase and, later, upgrade costs. As anyone who has worked in the IT sector will tell you, hardware procurement and maintenance is a matter of no small investment. Additional investments occur every time the hardware needs to be upgraded due to age or replaced due to failure. Our cloud computing provider delivers all of these at a fixed cost that is, unarguably, much lower than the investment a company would have to making doing so on its own.

Secondly, you have less strain on your internal IT staff. Having a server in-house is one thing. But having the knowledge base within your organization to administer and maintain that hardware is something else. Large companies may have entire departments devoted exclusively to System & Network Administration, back-up and Disaster recover processes, system investigation and issue resolution. Utilizing a cloud computing provider, we have all of these things at our disposal without adding additional, highly specialized (and often expensive) head count to the organization.

Finally, there is the matter of high quality protective processes that many SMB companies often cannot afford. This being the case, they may find themselves at the mercy of natural or human-origin catastrophes due to power outages, cyber-attacks or disasters such as fire, flood, or earthquake. Efficient Cloud Computing providers, having multiple data centers located on different continents, can survive several week power outages, massive cyber-attacks targeting an entire country or even deadly and devastating natural catastrophes such as the recent earthquakes in Japan.

In addition to the operational benefits above, there is also the inherent agility that comes with using a cloud computing solution. Scalability of the solution is the key in this instance. A phone call or an e-mail and a few hours of lead team are often enough to add or remove capacity or even create whole new servers. A few clicks in a provider’s portal was enough to save nearly $400.00 a month in one instance by turning off a non-essential service. This agility can also benefit in other ways as well.

iVEDiX, being involved in delivering a mobile solution, can leverage this capability significantly to help meet demands and deadlines. Right now a phone call and an e-mail to one of our providers are enough to request a new server that will be available a few days later. It may seem almost like a luxury, but what happens when we have a customer that tells us they plan to add 100 additional iPads and end-users within the next few weeks? Ordering and receiving new hardware alone would take days or even weeks, to say nothing of configuration and implementation of the software the server would need. With the cloud, we can be as light on our feet as the customer’s needs dictate.

The biggest possible con, is also one that can be mitigated using a combination of planning and common sense. This issue is security, and the amount of risk depends almost entirely on us. Intelligent use of things such as server-level encryption, determining what is placed in the cloud environment, and using version control software can bring these risks down considerably. Specifics tactics that we employed in dealing with these are enough to take up a whole other article.

Overall, iVEDiX has benefited greatly from being able to leverage cloud-based computing for much of our back-end architecture. Utilizing the advantages and mitigating the risks, we have been able to be as well equipped as a multi-billion dollar company in terms of IT infrastructure for a fraction of the cost of what those big companies pay for it. If you are an SMB company, it is well worth your while to investigate this type of solution for yourself.

iVEDiX was featured in Forbes in last year and co-headlined the National Retail Federation’s 100th Anniversary Convention in New York City where the team unveiled the concept of the product at the convention. The company and the product were featured by many analysts and retail press. The product will be one of the first to connect the dots between traditional business intelligence, Location Intelligence, Customer Engagement, and Social Media intelligence in real time. miVEDiX architecture powers the delivery of your information, unifying both structured and unstructured content to your tablet device in the shortest, fastest time with the equally uncompromising visuals.