The cloud is an incredible tool for small businesses. It’s versatile, cheap and infinitely scalable. And it’s brought software that once cost a fortune to every small business in the land. But for all its merits, cloud computing is not without its risks.

Here we’re going to investigate some of those risks, and what you can do to prevent them from harming your business.

The Problem Of Someone Else Looking After Your Data

When you use cloud computing services, you are essentially asking somebody else to care for your data. And while your data might be hidden behind layers of encryption, the cloud service owns the physical servers. Steve Santorelli of Scotland Yard has a warning for small businesses using cloud providers. He says that the people looking after their data are unlikely to be as concerned about it as they are. Thus every time a business uploads data to the cloud, they are asking somebody else to look after it. Whether they have the small business’s best interests at heart is not always clear.

The Problem Of Cloud Services Going Bust

Cloud services are run by third party companies. And as Legal Escrow & Arbitration Services points out, cloud services can and do go bust. This creates a problem. Often companies are dependent on the cloud services that they receive. Without them, their businesses are at risk. Businesses in this situation can protect themselves by taking out what is known as a software escrow. This means that if the cloud service goes bust, they have to release the source code of their product to the licensees. This means that customers can continue to implement the cloud services, even if the provider cannot.

The Problem Of Government Spying

The government is a significant threat to the security and safety of your businesses and your customer’s information. GCHQ has repeatedly been caught conducting mass surveillance operations of the British public. The fact that it is the government attempting to steal information doesn’t change the nature of the risk. Governments are prone to leaks and bad behaviour and could use the information against you or pass it on to a competitor.

The Problem Of Standardisation

Have you ever asked what makes the cloud safe? Right now it’s a hodge-podge of different security measures across different problems. The issue is that cloud security is not standardised. Different vendors have different security standards making it hard to find those that are secure, and those that aren’t. This lack of standardisation may lead some experts to call a platform safe when others will not.

The Problem Of Support

When your cloud service goes down, you know about it. Some cloud services offer full customer support. But many are just budding startups that don’t. Thus, if your cloud goes down, it can sometimes be impossible to contact anyone to sort the problem out. That’s a big problem if you’re dependent on cloud services to reach customers. The official advice, therefore, is to stick with established cloud providers. Only go with those that have customer support.