Adoption of cloud SaaS applications as a whole can reduce IT overhead costs be 20 – 30%1.
The big one’s like Microsoft Office 365 and Google G-Suite are making a massive impact and the advantages are plenty; ease of use, little to no ramp up time, access from anywhere, easy upgrades and updates, fewer upfront costs and scalable as you grow.
It’s clear why so many businesses are shifting to more SaaS applications, but there are a few drawbacks. Unlike more traditional on-premises solutions which are more controlled, it’s difficult to secure data with SaaS applications, potentially leaving you open to security threats:
- Employees are using unvetted SaaS applications
- Employees use personal devices to access SaaS
- User credentials are stolen
- You host sensitive data in those cloud SaaS applications
- The cloud ecosystem doesn’t necessarily meet your compliance requirements.
~40% of security incidents in 2018 involved privilege misuse2.
You can still reap the benefits from cloud SaaS applications without compromising on the security of your data.
If you use one of the major public cloud SaaS applications and would like a sanity check for visibility and diligence, feel free to reach out. In a very short amount of time, you can effectively highlight data in those SaaS applications (possibly sensitive or private) that represent a risk exposure to your situation (inadvertently or otherwise). Once you have that visibility, you’ll be in a strong position to make well educated decisions.
Sources:
- “Cloud Adoption to Accelerate IT Modernization”, McKinsey 2018.
- “2019 Data Breach investigations report”, Verizon, 2019.