Technology

Three Security Myths About Moving To The Cloud

Cloud infrastructure is designed around productivity and integration, which means advanced encryption of all data, whether it’s in transit or at rest, and between apps, networks and users.”

Austin Messer, Calabrio
Austin Messer, Calabrio

Every day, contact centers all over the world use cloud platforms to successfully provide an efficient, seamless experience for their customers. As they lead the contact center industry into the future, many still remain apprehensive, primarily due to concerns around data security. In fact, Call Center IQ’s “2016 Executive Report on Contact Center Technology” notes that 58% of contact centers are still using primarily or completely on-premises solutions, meaning far too many are simply riding their legacy platforms into the grave, and they’re doing so at their own detriment. A recent survey of IT and business executives by TrackVia found that 66% felt that legacy software was hindering growth.

Organizations are terrified of experiencing a data breach, and they are willing to trade their agility and growth potential in order to achieve a perceived sense of security. However, what most brands don’t realize is that many of the objections about cloud security are more myth than truth. While fear of moving to the cloud holds skeptics back, those who have migrated to the cloud are quietly capitalizing on a massive customer and employee experience opportunity. Following are the top three security myths about moving the contact center to the cloud.

MYTH #1 – Control Equals Security

One of the biggest myths surrounding cloud data safety is the concept of control. The traditional IT mantra is that greater control equals greater security, meaning data and systems should ideally be stored onsite. However, threats to data security can come from anywhere, including inside the walls of the organization. Research by McAfee shows that internal employees, including administrators and managers, are the root cause of approximately half of all data loss. Whether accidental or intentional, storing data on-premises does little to keeping data truly protected.
With cloud-based solutions, both infrastructure and applications can help hedge against malicious or negligent activity by internal sources. Application-specific authentication and access privileges allow cloud-based platforms to mitigate the risk of theft or credential sharing, which makes it infinitely more difficult for company employees to locate and access sensitive data. This type of authentication also helps reduce privilege abuse, such as when a malicious insider with broad-reaching credentials, like a system administrator, uses privileges to access large stores of data and pilfer information. In addition, many cloud service providers have analytics systems in place to monitor for suspicious activity, placing yet another layer of security on top of platforms.

MYTH #2 – The Cloud Is Wrought with Security Breaches

Another misconception about the cloud is that it is, by its very nature, riddled with hidden or unforeseeable security vulnerabilities. This perception was actually created and perpetuated by a rise in general cybersecurity threats and data breaches approximately 10 years ago. It’s no secret that in the past decade security breaches have grown by nearly 500% in the United States alone. In addition, 60% of companies will experience a breach at some point (Forrester, “Planning For Failure: How To Survive A Breach”). But, what many contact centers fail to realize is that these threats are not indicative of a flaw in cloud security, but rather an influx of attacks on an ever-growing pool of valuable data. It was never because of the cloud and, as it turns out, moving data to the cloud actually improves an organization’s security outlook compared to keeping it on outdated, in-house systems.

MYTH #3 – My On-Premises, Legacy Solution Is Safer

Although many IT departments still view on-premises as the epitome of data safety and security, the reality is most legacy contact center systems were designed before the age of digital productivity and cyber threats. They weren’t made for the way people and departments work today, and while they may succeed in appearing truly integrated, they are actually just a shoddy patchwork of systems that have been pieced together, resulting in very noticeable gaps in security.

On the other hand, cloud infrastructure is designed around productivity and integration, which means advanced encryption of all data, whether it’s in transit or at rest, and between apps, networks and users. With application-level security, contact centers can take a granular approach to access control, and no one person has complete and total system access. This granular control also gives greater visibility into the system by tracking both data movement and users, which allows organizations to help identify changes or abnormalities, monitor situations, and subsequently shut down threats before they become full-blown attacks.

Just as contact center agents specialize in products or services, so do cloud vendors when it comes to keeping cloudbased systems safe. The majority of vendors utilize Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud, and these are brands that have built their reputation on maintaining a secure infrastructure. This caliber of security goes far beyond the capabilities of one single enterprise, and contact centers will soon come to realize what the majority of other organizations already know: Cloud-based solutions give affordable access to flexible systems that accommodate the needs of the modern workforce to help organizations grow, and they do so with sophisticated levels of cybersecurity to ensure that sensitive data remains safe and free from attacks.

Austin Messer is a Product Manager at Calabrio focusing on the Calabrio ONE platform.

– Reprinted with permission from Contact Center Pipeline, http://www.contactcenterpipeline.com

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