While the cloud is fundamentally changing how organisations use data, when it comes to sensitive information such as HR and payroll, caution needs to be applied.
This is according to Ian McAlister, GM of HR (human resources) and payroll specialists CRS Technologies South Africa.
In 2018 Facebook suffered a breach that exposed the data of at least 50 million user accounts. Given the strict privacy laws of Europe, the company is facing fines of as much as $1.63 billion. Examples such as this and the Liberty Life breach in South Africa last year, where hackers gained access to the personal records of millions of clients, do little to assuage concerns that the cloud, for all its benefits, still has significant risks attached to it.
“Yes, the much-touted cost benefits of going the cloud route is not something to ignore. With corporate budgets under pressure, everything from HR to IT spend needs to be managed. And with cloud providers offering all these services in a hosted environment, companies can focus less on spending resources on hardware and software upgrades, and more on delivering strategic objectives.
The recent arrival of two multinational data centres in South Africa is also expected to significantly shake up how the cloud is approached, as well as the types of services delivered in the country.
“Fortunately, this focus means services providers will do everything in their power to mitigate the risks of data breaches and other availability concerns. These data centres are also expected to bring other international competitors into the South African market. Local servers mean faster response times and fewer delays in analysing data.”
The cloud route also provides companies with the ability to easily and cost-effectively scale up or down according to the needs of the business.
“Instead of purchasing additional servers or expanding an on-site data warehouse, the cloud provider has the required functionality to add capacity,” says McAlister. “For organisations that are growing quickly, being able to easily accommodate new employees as well as more seamlessly manage payroll and HR processes can make a considerable difference in the efficacy of operations.”
And when migrating to the cloud, solutions are automatically updated when new features become available. Companies therefore do not have to worry about patching or updating software.
“The cloud is going to change the business landscape even more over the coming months. But fundamentally it is still about keeping data safe, available, and online using dedicated resources tailored to the needs of the business.”