Avoid GDPR Governance Penalties and Improve Your Business with Cloud Computing

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) European Union (EU) Security technology background.

The introduction of the EU’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) has made the issue of data storage, access and, ultimately, overall governance vastly more significant. Indeed, with businesses inside and outside the European Union required by law to follow the new data protection guidelines, everyone has been affected. From a financial perspective, the penalties for non-compliance can be severe. Described as “effective, proportionate and dissuasive”, the fines can be as high as 4% of a company’s annual turnover or up to €20 million/$22 million, whichever is greater.

 

Initial Investments Are Worth It in the End

However, even though compliance is necessary both legally and financially, many businesses have found it hard to meet the required standards. According to a survey by ICSA, 78% of organizations said that becoming GDPR compliant was a “heavy burden” on their resources. But, as is often the case in business, heavy investment can lead to long-term gains. By investing in the right software to become GDPR compliant, a company can actually improve data governance. Today, thanks to cloud computing, handling data doesn’t have to be a chore.

For businesses, the most important data issue is security. Using cloud services such as a web application firewall (WAF), a company has the ability to filter out threats before they become a problem. Beyond that, cloud security software has the power to constantly adapt to the latest threats. Because the software is based online, it has the ability to analyze information in real-time. This allows it to track data security issues such as uncovering risky users by using machine learning to establish when a threat is truly dangerous and when it’s a false positive.

 

Greater Control Leads to Greater Productivity


Server – Cyber Security” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by perspec_photo88

This has two benefits in terms of data governance. Firstly, cloud security software protects any stored data. Secondly, it reduces the amount of time spent chasing false leads. By using an adaptive system that can learn to spot real threats from fake ones, a business can streamline its operation and reduce costs. In fact, this idea of streamlining feeds into the other major benefit of using cloud services: organization. Modern cloud servers not only allow companies to store data online but have greater control over the information. As well as advanced search tools that allow data to be filtered and organized in specific ways, cloud software is highly flexible.

Because data can be held on multiple virtual servers, it reduces the risk of a crash taking down an entire system or data being lost. What’s more, businesses can choose products that allow them to scale the amount of storage they use depending on their needs at a particular time. The upshot of this is that costs can be managed more effectively. Therefore, while the initial investment to become GDPR compliant may be high, it will help reduce long-term costs. Indeed, by using cloud service, a business will not only meet the latest EU data regulations but have more control over the information they store. What’s more, they’ll be able to obtain greater insights into their business which, in turn, can lead to greater efficiency, productivity and profits.

The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of The World Financial Review.