Break Free of Limitations and Take Control of Your Data
Whether you’re looking for more predictable costs, reduced maintenance and security burdens, or the flexibility and cutting-edge tools the cloud offers, migrating to a cloud-based platform has become an essential choice for businesses in the last few years. With many organizations competing with those that were ‘born in the cloud’, it’s a natural step in order to maintain or regain competitive advantage while also enhancing security and compliance for your business as markets, regulations and customer demands change. However, in order to make these opportunities a reality, you need to organize a migration of your existing archives. It needs to be a seamless, accurate process with no hidden surprises, and it must maintain legal chain of custody over your data as well as limiting the impact on your business operations. So, where do you turn?
Moving to the Cloud: What are Your Options?
There are two main ways to move your legacy archive to the cloud, but only one that provides the benefits of cloud computing in its truest sense. The first option is to use Software as a Service (SaaS) archiving, like solutions provided by Mimecast and Global Relay. While solutions of this kind might seem like the simple way to go, they do come at the cost of security, access, accountability, and control over your data. The second option is to migrate your data to a true hyperscale cloud that offers complete flexibility and enhanced security.
Option 1: A SaaS Solution
Moving to a SaaS archive might feel like you’ve shifted to the cloud, especially if you’re moving away from an on-premises environment, but the reality is very different. You’ll likely hear SaaS vendors claim they offer the best turn-key cloud archiving platforms, but SaaS archives restrict you from accessing the best features of the cloud due to their one-size-fits-all approach. Most don’t own their own datacenters, and so rent a cloud space in which they archive the data of multiple organizations. Why is this a problem? This is what’s known as a multi-tenant cloud, and it provides a significant drawback for the client – your encryption keys are controlled by the SaaS vendor and could be used across their SaaS clients. Because encryption keys could be re-used among many clients, data breaches and the associated regulatory issues are much greater. It also means that the SaaS vendor can access your company’s sensitive data at any time.
If you’re sharing a cloud with others, you don’t have control over a wide range of factors. The digital equivalent of shared office space, a SaaS-based archive means the vendor controls everything from security protocols and policies to the global location data is stored in and, crucially, the encryption keys that unlock your data. Proprietary wrappers also mean you can’t access your data effectively or use the latest tools to extract insight from your archive. This black box approach is a far cry from the features of the true public cloud and moves you into only a marginally better place than a legacy, on-premises archive.
Common Concerns Over SaaS Archiving Solutions:
- Little or no control over your data’s geographic location – data sovereignty
- Data analysis and eDiscovery functionality is limited to “lowest common denominator” vendor-provided tools
- Limited search options for audio, video and other non-email files
- Little to no control over security policies
- No access to encryption keys
- Proprietary formats limit your ability to move your data
In a recent survey of global IT executives, including VPs, directors, and members of the C-suite at major corporations, only 19% of those surveyed believed 75% or more of their SaaS vendors met all of their security requirements. 70% stated they had been forced to make at least one security exception for a SaaS vendor. While many of these organizations are likely using popular SaaS products like Microsoft Office 365 and SalesForce, where the size and standing of the vendor might make the business more amenable to accepting a perceived lower risk, the clear takeaway is that SaaS solutions don’t provide the security standards modern organizations require.
Elsewhere, on the topic of encryption keys, an astounding 95% of respondents believed it was important to control their own encryption keys, and 81% were uncomfortable with their SaaS vendors controlling them. However, 74% of those surveyed said they did not control the encryption keys for the majority of their SaaS solutions. This is a worrying statistic and one that many organizations will have to take steps to reverse as regulations continue to tighten and the threat of cybercrime grows. To that end, 92% of executives said they would need more security customization in the future, with 63% of them planning to retire SaaS applications that didn’t provide them control over encryption keys.
These statistics paint a clear picture of the business security landscape and the risk that the one-size-fits-all approach of SaaS vendors introduces. As the trend for security customization continues and scrutiny over data access and handling increases, SaaS solutions will become increasingly less palatable for businesses aiming to de-risk their operations. Instead, more secure and customizable solutions, such as those in the public cloud, will be sought.
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Archive360 Email Migration Software Product Highlights
Archive360 offers the most trusted email archive migration solution available, specifically designed for the McAfee MX Logic archive. Fully integrated with the solution’s APIs for faster, more accurate extractions, Archive360 extracts messages and attachments, including all metadata, directly from the archive and maintains an item-level audit trail for compliance and legal reporting. It also preserves complete, original message fidelity for eDiscovery and regulatory information requests.
