Where do you store all your private files? On your notebook? On an external hard disk? In the cloud? If it's your private data, such as your personal pictures from your last vacation, the selfie with your girlfriend or the meal from last night's trendy restaurant, your answer will probably be: "Well, they're all automatically uploaded to the cloud."
And why not? It's very practical. On the one hand, it saves storage space on smartphones, tablets and other devices, and on the other, the images can be accessed on all of these devices without having to copy them and then move them back and forth.
You also have a private access key. You trust that your pictures will only be viewed and managed by you - "What interest should the provider have in my pictures? Besides, they are obliged to store them securely for me." Exactly. But what about the data for your company? Which storage locations are sensible and secure at the same time?
Everything under one roof?
Many German companies still go to the trouble of storing, processing and maintaining everything in their own company environment. This method of self-managed hardware is called "on-premises". The intentions behind the local IT infrastructure are good and have their justification. After all, all data is under the company's own control.
If companies also manage customer data, they are responsible for security. But this is where the problems begin. Technology is developing so rapidly that the first gaps are already appearing here.
In-house IT administrators often have to deal with other tasks on a day-to-day basis and provide support to their colleagues from different departments for daily applications. Long-term tasks, such as security updates and system maintenance, often fall by the wayside. The consequences? The data is no longer stored securely and the company becomes vulnerable to external attacks. In the worst case scenario, the company may even be liable to prosecution if customer data is mismanaged and lost. This can quickly become expensive and damage the company's reputation.
New IT infrastructures offer these opportunities
Medium-sized companies and start-ups in particular have to budget their resources. Having their own IT department on a sufficient scale is not even financially viable. This is where the next generation of IT infrastructure enters the stage: Software as a Service (SaaS) in the context of cloud systems or browser-based environments.
What sounds complex at first is an excellent solution that can flexibly meet all requirements and save costs. A company books exactly the IT service it really needs at the moment. This could be storage space for data, CRM platforms, messenger services, mailing services or time tracking systems, for example.
Annual subscriptions that are concluded with the provider are very common. In addition to the use of the service, SaaS solutions include expert support. The service providers undertake to always keep the respective systems up to date and to carry out regular maintenance.
How to find the right software provider
To find the right provider and the right product for your company on the market, you should ask yourself the following questions, among others: What goal am I pursuing with it and what do I really need for my company? Which services would be particularly useful for making processes more efficient? What might just be nice-to-have?
The offerings are just as diverse as the needs. SaaS models offer flexible solutions for this. For example, if the company realizes that it needs more capacity or additional services, it can simply book these on top. Expensive purchased software that has to be laboriously imported into the entire company structure is now a thing of the past. The service providers support companies in the smooth adaptation to their own systems so that every employee has access.
You can also find more tips on choosing the right software here: The smart software selection process.
GDPR-compliant software
An important tip at this point: Make sure that you choose German or European service providers whose servers are located in Europe. They should comply with all GDPR guidelines. The following certificates are a good indicator of GDPR-compliant work: ISO27001, BSI C5 and Trusted Cloud Data Protection Profile (TCDP). With third-party providers, you should look far behind the scenes and ask: "What really happens to the data?".
Conclusion: High flexibility with SaaS
The big advantage of SaaS and cloud providers is that companies no longer have to store all their data locally and manage it themselves. Although the data is no longer completely in their own hands, the frequent fear of losing control is generally unfounded.
By outsourcing their IT department and using modern IT infrastructures, small and medium-sized companies in particular can save time and money. They can combine tools, storage requirements and functions according to their current needs. As they rent the system landscapes instead of buying them, they avoid unnecessary additional costs. They avoid having to purchase larger hardware and commit to bloated and unused software in the long term. With the right choice of provider, companies always act in compliance with the law and meet legal requirements. The use of professional cloud systems can even ensure that data is more secure off-site than it would be at home.
Each company should decide for itself which data it wants to place in the hands of another party. For large companies, a hybrid solution may be an option. If, for example, it is a corporate group that has sufficient resources for an IT and legal department, classic IT infrastructures are still conceivable.
The decisive factor is that companies should never skimp on the processing and secure management of their own data. Moreover, they can only create competitive advantages if they rely on modern, scalable and flexible software solutions.
