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Debunking the common misconceptions about IoT

Bobby Varghese

The number of devices connected to the internet are increasing every day and are bringing fascinating changes in the entire industry. These changes generate a lot of curiosity among the leaders and come with various misconceptions. With one negative incident involving the IoT, businesses jump to conclusions which prevent them from deriving the benefits of IoT as a whole.

In this article we have debunked some of the common misconceptions about Internet of Things:

IoT is a new Technology: Many business leaders believe that IoT is a new technology and doesn’t guarantee success. While the term “Internet of Things” is relatively new, the underlying technology and business model has been generating tremendous value for more than a decade for businesses worldwide. A study by Boston Consulting Group revealed that small businesses that use IoT increase their revenue 15% faster than those who don’t.

It is just another Machine to Machine (M2M): With data moving between multiple connected devices, IoT seems to have similar functionalities as of M2M. However, in reality, IoT covers a lot more than that and can be called an extension of M2M. More than one host on the Internet could act as a central control system in IoT which allows remote monitoring and control of various other devices like smartphones which would have an application communicating with the common host.

Only big companies with high budgets can leverage IoT: According to a survey, nearly half of all small businesses believe IoT is expensive. They believe that only large corporations with higher budgets can implement and maintain a connected infrastructure. Whereas, in reality, smaller companies are more flexible and can better leverage the IoT-driven opportunities.

IoT is only for operational use: IoT is not only for use in background operations and has more to do with savings and improving efficiency of the organization. It allows accurate collection and reliable view of data with the help of multiple sensors on connected devices. With cheaper sensors and ways of accessing the information from these sensors, a company can increase its efficiency, improve products and discover new business models.

CONCLUSION: Do not let these misconceptions distract you from reality. The IoT is a feasible development that will take over the entire world. Those who prepare for it today will be the first ones to bring a new revolution tomorrow.

How Cloud Technology Improves Business Operations

Bobby Varghese

Cloud technology has proven to be helpful to businesses in many ways. It allows different people at different levels to access the same information pool at all times which can be further organized according to the business’ requirements. Being economical, convenient, flexible, and scalable, Cloud technology has taken the quality and efficiency of business operations to another level.

Here are a few ways in which the Cloud technology improves the efficiency of business operations:

 

Backup and Restore of Vital Information: 

One of the greatest resources any company has is the information about its customers and sales which helps drive the overall strategy of an organization. Storing this information in the Cloud protects it from unfavourable events like natural disasters, human error and other malicious attacks and helps the organizations to restore their information quickly and in a highly automated manner thereby reducing the downtime and improving the efficiency.

 

Reduction in Costs:

The goal of every business is to cut down the operational costs and to improve the efficiency whenever possible. The greatest benefit of moving to Cloud is that the services are available at a flat-rate monthly fee for users according to their bandwidth requirements without any upfront costs. Also, moving from in-house servers to Cloud servers eliminate the dependability on the IT support staff further reducing the costs and improving the efficiency.

 

Improvement in Business Flexibility:

Cloud computing allows the businesses to adapt to market conditions with a certain flexibility that is not available when they use on-site, physical solutions. This virtual solution enables quick responses to internal demands. The cloud services can be increased or decreased according to the demand. Thus, eliminating the problem of IT systems overload or over-provisioning.

 

Remote Access:

Perhaps one of the biggest advantages of Cloud technology is that it offers the employees to access their data, programs or anything stored on the Cloud through their web-enabled devices anytime, anywhere. This greatly benefits the employees and in turn increases the organizations’ efficiency.

 

Overall, there are many business benefits of Cloud Technology. It is important for every business owner to always look out for the most effective, yet economical solutions possible to gain maximum efficiency.

Major Cloud Security Challenges concerning the Enterprises

Bobby Varghese

With the increasing breach of sensitive data held in Cloud, many enterprises, medium and large, are now worried about Cloud Security. According to a survey by Clutch, Security was ranked among the top Cloud Computing benefits by 22% of the 300 respondents. Whereas, 31% of the respondents identified security as a major challenge. In this article, we will discuss some of the major Cloud Security Challenges facing the enterprises and whether they can be overcome.

Data Security: Ensuring Data Security while moving to the Cloud can be a difficult task. Data breaches continue to increase at an alarming rate with the increase in Cloud adoption. But, designing and implementing a proper cloud security database structure can help reduce the risk. Transparent and Application level encryption can help protecting the data at file-level or application-level.

Shadow IT: Businesses are evolving quickly and in order to get things done, internal business units are often bypassing IT security controls via Shadow IT without thinking about the vulnerabilities. This poses a serious threat to data security. Enterprises can prevent the leakage of sensitive data by encrypting it and by implementing intelligent key management models like AWS KMS, Microsoft KMS, etc. which allow access control to encrypted data.

Cyber Attacks/Conflicts: With the improvements in technology, the attacks are becoming complex as well. Proper Cloud Encryption tools like nCrypted Cloud, Gemalto SafeNet and Sophos can prevent cyber security attacks and create a safer environment for enterprises. A majority of organizations will agree that Data Encryption is one of the best things they can do to reduce the risk of cyber-attacks.

Compliance Issues with CSPs: Enterprises are concerned with the lack of control over the location of data, vulnerabilities from shared infrastructure, and privileged user abuse at the Service Provider. They want their CSPs to help them in data security, data protection, and data management issues. But, most of the service providers are not ready to address the major security challenge that concerns the enterprises. The service providers should take a note that even though they meet the compliance standards for data privacy like ISO 27001, PCI DSS, etc., they still need to take into account the security needs of enterprises to continue doing business.

Final Thoughts: Cloud security challenges are not insuperable. In order to overcome these challenges, enterprises and service providers need to follow the best security practices such as encrypting their data, employing strong authentication and access controls, and keeping a track of new vulnerabilities and attacks on a regular basis.