According to Survey, IoT Use is Up While Trust is Down
While the Internet of Things has increased in use, that doesn’t mean that its users necessarily trust it just yet. Furthermore, many of these users aren’t fully aware of the actual extent that the IoT has in their lives. These results, from a recent survey by Cisco, could be pertinent to your business and how you manage it. With so many new devices connecting to your network, how can you expect them to affect operations?
Cisco’s survey covers 3,000 North American adults with at least some knowledge of IoT devices. As such, it provides a lot of great information about how businesses and consumers respond to the Internet of Things. Most consumers aren’t necessarily aware of just how far-reaching the Internet of Things can be, even if they use them on a regular basis. In fact, the Internet of Things includes devices that might not have traditionally benefited from a connection to the Internet. Some of these are car navigation systems, street lamps, security systems, and health-monitoring devices.
Most users knew about some of the more familiar and useful Internet of Things devices, but others were amazed by some of the more unusual IoT devices out there. Even though there are disparities in awareness, users generally responded positively to Internet-connected devices, provided they knowingly used them. 53 percent of users claimed that connected devices provided an easier way of life, while 47 percent found that their lives were more efficient with them. 34 percent of users also argue that Internet of Things devices have made them feel more secure.
However, the real kicker of this survey is that only 9 percent of respondents could say that they felt their data was more secure or private thanks to the Internet of Things. Furthermore, 14% of users felt that the way their data was being used wasn’t transparent enough for their liking, which is certainly a major concern. Even if the device helps you, you still have to worry whether or not it’s compromising your security.
Despite these suspicions, it’s likely that the Internet of Things is going to continue growing. Therefore, you must make sure that your company is taking IoT devices into account around your office. Implementing a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy is the best way to make sure that your business is always aware of devices found on the company network. Implementing such a policy ensures that your business has a plan for personal devices in the workplace, and it can help to limit the damage done by them in the event of an incident.
Catalyst Technology Group can help your business prepare for the Internet of Things. To learn more, reach out to us at (317) 705-0333.
How Easily Could A Freak Event Take Down Your Business?
Your business is much more vulnerable to dangerous entities than you’d care to admit. Think about it–all it takes is one unexpected event to cause untold amounts of chaos for your business. To make matters worse, these events are often outside of your control. Data loss incidents might be unpredictable, but they can be soothed thanks to a little bit of preventative management.
It’s one thing protecting yourself from cyber security threats (which you definitely need to be concerned with) but there are other types of unplanned disasters that can show up without warning. We’re talking about acts of nature and misfortune, which are certainly much more difficult to prevent than a hacking attack–there’s little you can do to stop the weather.
The only way to guarantee your business’s future is to think of your organization like you would an egg. An egg could crack at any time unless you take preventative measures to keep it safe. For example, you’d keep it in the carton in the refrigerator, safe from any external elements. This is the way that you want to preserve your business’s data–in a safe, controlled environment that is free of external troubles.
This type of data isolation is generally not possible with traditional tape backup solutions. Your organization would take one backup a day after your office has closed, and this backup would be stored on a tape, which is either stored off-site or in-house. This presents potential problems for your organization in the fact that the tapes could be lost, misplaced, stolen, or destroyed while being stored in-house. Furthermore, since they are only being taken once a day, you run the risk of a data loss incident derailing operations during the middle of the workday. You could potentially lose up to an entire day’s worth of progress that could make all the difference when finishing a crucial project and meeting a deadline.
Plus, nobody wants to think about the downtime that comes from restoring data to your infrastructure. With traditional tape backup, restoring data could take anywhere from several hours to days, depending on the amount of data that’s being restored. Furthermore, your operations will be halted during this process. When no work is being done, you’ll only get further and further behind.
Cloud-based backup allows for much more dynamic data preservation techniques that utilize the virtual environment of the cloud. You can take multiple backups as often as every fifteen minutes, allowing for minimal data loss. Furthermore, your data can be restored directly to the BDR device itself, allowing for near-instantaneous recovery and minimal downtime. It’s just one way that planning for the worst can help you avoid it.
Does your organization need comprehensive data backup and disaster recovery? We can equip your business with BDR so that you’ll never have to be concerned with data loss again. To learn more, reach out to us at (317) 705-0333.