For many years, organizations operating in highly regulated industries -- such as legal, healthcare and finance -- have shied away from cloud technology. Instead, many such companies prefer to keep their confidential data on-site rather than have it stored in a remote data center where it shares its home with numerous other clients. But times are changing, and cloud providers can now help companies operating even in the most regulated industries to protect their data, streamline processes and more.
Meeting Your Legal Obligations
Regulated businesses absolutely must follow the rules lest they leave themselves open to enormous fines and even litigation. However, meeting legal obligations is rarely easy, particularly for businesses that serve clients or work with partners in multiple jurisdictions. For organizations with wider geographical scopes, matters quickly become exponentially more complicated.
Most small organizations simply can’t afford to pay for the cutting-edge technology and expertise they need to ensure their data security obligations are being met. That’s why it has become more important to work with experts who are very familiar with the compliance regulations your company and industry faces. It’s exactly this need that has given rise to an increasing number of specialist cloud providers that work with regulated industries.
Specialist cloud providers that can demonstrate expertise in your industry can help you achieve and surpass your security goals by being compliant themselves. Since they have access to the latest technology and industry-leading systems that smaller organizations simply couldn’t afford, they’ll be in a better position to look after your data and take responsibility for it.
Simplifying Your Business Processes
Just because your organization is subject to strict regulations doesn’t mean your day-to-day operations need to be fraught with unnecessary complications and red tape. However, it’s difficult to build a secure infrastructure when you’re using dated and inefficient on-premises systems that are highly vulnerable to human error. The National Health Service in the UK found that out when it fell victim to the WannaCry ransomware attack in 2017!
Migrating to the cloud consolidates security, agility and infrastructure, and helps you enable the provisions laid out by legislation such as HIPAA and PCI-DSS. Although that doesn’t mean you can afford to be lax when it comes to security, it does mean that your systems will be in the best hands and you can share the responsibility of looking after your confidential data with a third party.
Not only does the cloud help you better keep track of security and automate many core business processes, it also improves accessibility. For example, healthcare providers may want to give their patients the ability to access and manage their private information and appointments online. At the same time, the increasingly mobile workforce requires a web-based infrastructure for quick and easy access to data, and that’s exactly the sort of system a cloud vendor provides.
Lighten the Load on Your Business
It’s easy for a small business operating in highly regulated fields to get so bogged down with meeting compliance regulations that its employees hardly have time to do anything else. That’s why partnering with the right technology provider is critical for streamlining operations, improving staff productivity, and taking cybersecurity to the highest level.
Aside from improving efficiency and security, however, migrating to the cloud will also help you meet your disaster recovery and business continuity strategies. This also happens to be one of the core considerations of many compliance regulations.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by compliance regulations, but there’s no way around them. Fortunately, you don’t have to meet them alone. Here at F1 Solutions, we offer compliance-as-a-service solutions that help make sure you’re meeting your legal obligations through security awareness training, risk assessments, round-the-clock monitoring, and more. Contact us today to learn more.
