For SMBs, the cloud represents the hugely appealing possibility of having someone else take care of archiving your e-mail, delivering document security, or even managing maintenance contracts. For partners, well, someone has to set them up with those services, right? It’s not all positive, though: keeping chunks of sensitive information in someone else’s data center comes with its own risks. I spoke with David Meizlik, director of product marketing for Websense, about how to avoid problems when moving customers to the cloud.
The three things to look for, according to Meizlik:
- Is the solution provider using a secure environment? Are they hosting your e-mail out of a hardened data center or a server room in their office? Where your data is kept is as important as how it gets to you.
- How will the solution provider get your secure data to you? If they’re not using some kind of encryption, they’re leaving your confidential e-mails or sensitive contract information out there for any determined hacker to intercept.
- Can you (or your client) provide a secure environment? The first two steps are worthless if a disgruntled employee with a USB drive can copy that sensitive information the solution provider tried so hard to protect — or if a malicious worm gets through an unpatched Windows installation and wreaks havoc on your network.
Websense addresses a lot of security issues — including that third item, Meizlik says. The company provides web and security data in many flavors — their most recent offering comes in the form of security-as-a-service, protecting users from the aforementioned malicious software, whether they come from websites or in e-mail.
If the minor-but-not insignificant growth they reported in Q3 2009 is any indication, people are buying what they’re selling. Websense does have a partner program, and–at least according to Meizlik–no other security provider offers the same kind of coverage. It’s nice that the security market is booming, but it just serves as a reminder that the cloud comes with its own risks.
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Tags: Cloud computing | SaaS | Security | Security as a Service | Websense
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While I agree with the requirements Meizlik sets out for a secure SaaS partner, he either has not been looking or has been ignoring facts.
SaaS vendor Webroot have been providing secure email and web security, email encryption and email archiving out of their worldwide set of 8 dedicated data centers for 8 years. While their SLA guarantees 99.999% uptime, their track record is 100% coverage. They have never had a break in security. One of the things I like about working with Webroot is that they have close to 100% client retention rate for their services. My clients are happy with both the service and the price.
Another example of excellence is SaaS vendor LiveOffice. LiveOffice provides both hosted Exchange as well as email archiving. LiveOffice have the largest percentage of any email hosted archiving vendor in that space having been doing so for 10 years.
Bob Stevens echoes my sentiments exactly. I have been selling Webroot SaaS services for years now and we have defense contractors, healthcare centers and a slew of businesses in all the other verticals enjoying rock-solid email security and web security using Webroot’s global server clusters. Up time has been 100% and their technical support is second to none. These guys really understand security and that helps drive repeat business as well as new business. Websense is not the only player out there.