 Unified CommunicationsNetwork World's Unified Communications Newsletter, 09/27/07'My data isn’t secure in the hands of a third party'By Michael OstermanWeek before last, I had the privilege of speaking at the inaugural Application Continuity conference in San Jose. The meeting brought together a group of interesting speakers on topics focused around keeping messaging and applications available through disasters and other problems. During the afternoon of the conference’s second day, there was an interesting panel discussion that pitted three proponents of hosted services against three proponents of on-premise solutions. The goal was to explore the issues for and against each approach and to solicit feedback from the audience, many of whom were IT decision makers. Not surprisingly, many in the audience were opposed to the idea of hosting their messaging systems and/or applications because of their concerns over potential data loss. Because messaging systems and applications contain data that is absolutely critical to the operation of the business, including sensitive financial data, many want to keep their data physically behind the corporate firewall for safekeeping.
That’s a valid concern. If your job security is at least partly dependent upon protecting the integrity of your company’s data, you had better be concerned about protecting that data. However, I would recommend that you undertake the following mental exercise: imagine what someone would have to do to gain access to your data, either by hacking their way in to your network or actually breaking into your facilities to steal backup tapes, disk drives, laptop computers, etc. After that, arrange a tour of a leading hosting provider to determine what their defenses are relative to yours. It may be that your defenses are better and protect your data more completely. Then again, maybe the hosting provider offers better defenses against data loss. In a Webinar that we will be hosting on Oct. 3, we will directly address security issues and concerns for hosted providers. You can sign up for this no-charge Webinar here.
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| Contact the author: For webinars or research on messaging, or to join the Osterman Research market research survey panel, go here. Osterman Research helps organizations understand the markets for messaging and directory related offerings. To e-mail Michael, click here. ARCHIVEArchive of the Unified Communications Newsletter. BONUS FEATUREIT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICESTo subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: networking.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007 |
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