How SaaS addresses your data security worries.
One of the really great features of SaaS is that this model offers some really great security advantages. These security advantages can help lower your risk level against data breaches and protect your client’s data. Anything that increases your data security has real value, not only because it can avoid business disruption, but it helps shield you from an areas of worrisome liabilities.
SaaS is software that runs on the vendor’s site. Data is no longer stored, managed and secured at your location on your hardware. A common perception is that off site data is less secure and that data that is located on-site is somehow more secure. In reality, that perception may be upside down. Data, similar to money, is safer in a bank than under the mattress. Just because data is on your own server doesn't meant that is it invulnerable to security hacks, human error, or hardware failure. Vendors who provide SaaS are more likely to have the resources to invest in significant redundancies that are financially impractical for most individual businesses. They are also likely to adhere to auditing standards such as SSAE16, SOC 2 and SOC 3 have geo-redundant data centers.
Also, less frequently discussed, but still important, is that under the SaaS model the licensor retains a significant level of responsibility for data security. For example, if you have an Excel sheet with customer information and it is compromised, your business is solely responsible. However, if you were using a CRM that was a part of a SaaS model (and not a license model), your vendor is largely responsible for data leak, as long as it is not a glaring error at your end, such, as, say, password sharing. The onus of data security shifts toward the vendor.
As you consider migrating to SaaS, take time to consider the serious benefits it brings to your data security obligations.
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