SaaS and Security: Is your Data Safe? CompTIA EMEA Conference panelists discuss

After a short discussion on the definition of cloud and SaaS (Software as a Service), leading panelists at the CompTIA EMEA Member Conference took to discussing the guidelines and best practices companies can engage in to help educate customers when implementing SaaS.

Vlad Mazek, CEO of Own Web Now, shared that building a cloud service offering should be done, ironically enough, brick by brick. As service providers must build their authentication model over the cloud – so they must ask customers, “What type of applications do you have?” Work in steps to define carefully with each customer those processes, Mazek advized, and continually agree early and often on these definitions.

Mike Smart, Product Line Executive, EMEA, McAfee, easily identified security as the #1 barrier to cloud adoption. Security concerns continue to make cloud a difficult decision to make for some companies. Be prepared to talk about “Are you regulated?”, “Who is your data center provider?”, “Do they conform to ISO standards?” Smart suggested. These are really excellent initial discussions to have with the provider, commented Smart.

Shiv Kumar, EVP of Zylog Systems Ltd., shared specific best practices to use your other client success stories to show cloud based data center implementations.

All agreed it comes down to listening to your customers, both to what they are asking and what they are telling you. But mostly it is about what they are NOT saying. Key questions to keep in mind to prompt exploratory conversation: “What systems do you have to secure? How secure? Who needs access? Who is blocked? What applications need to be linked?

When summarized, starting the conversation with your customer, “What is your biggest security concern?” can be, the panelists all agreed, is the first best step to beginning security in the cloud.

Visit the CompTIA EMEA Member Conference website and press room for highlights of the conference. Presentations, including this session on SaaS and security, will be posted after the event.