Physical and Environmental Controls
As a further comparison to the typical on-premise solution you may be using to store confidential client data, here’s a closer look at physical and environmental controls of cloud data centers. The following precautions apply to nearly all large scale cloud vendors, but for this case we are specifically referring to Amazon Web Services.
- 24/7 surveillance
- Located in unmarked/nondescript facilities in remote locations
- Military-grade defense barriers
- Maintain own power generation in the case of natural disaster
- Physical access strictly controlled with state of the art intrusion detection systems
- All physical and electronic access to data centers by Amazon employees is logged and audited regularly
- Co-located facilities means data is not lost if something happens to systems at one location
It’s clear that data stored in the cloud is held to a high standard of security. Does your on-premise solution have similar provisions to ensure your data is secure?
To learn more, read our recent post outlining 4 Critical Data Security Tips for Law Firms.
