Part of choosing a managed IT service provider for all your Toronto business’ needs in the digital age is ensuring that your crucial data, software and applications are properly stored and backed up with cloud services you are also provided with. To make sure that your tech support company is doing more than an adequate job of keeping your information securely backed up, and your systems for work in place even when everyone is working remotely, you need to ask your managed IT services provider these top 4 questions:
How Do You Manage Encryption Keys?
Your tech support company in Toronto should be able to tell you that they allow for segmented access to their cloud systems. This means that general employees only have access to one data center, or another, which protects your data by automatically restricting access to it, depending on who is authorized to access it, and from which application, data center, or cloud.
A reliable managed IT services provider also actively creates a logical and physical separation between encrypted data and the encrypted keys. This way, the highest level of security is in owning and managing both keys, ensuring that your business has full control of your cloud, and the data stored in it.
How is Activity Monitored and Documented?
To answer this question, your managed IT services provider in Toronto should be able to provide an audit trail that accurately tracks the changes that occur in your account. This way, you are aware of the members in your team making changes to data and applications stored in the cloud, and the exact changes they make.
Should there be a change made that does not add up to the completion of projects, or any other anomaly, it will be easy to find the source, assess how much of your operations have been compromised, and what can be done to fix the damage in order to avoid a future breach. This will also give you an idea as to how well your tech support company in Toronto is keeping your business secure, and that their work is in line with the terms of your agreement.
How Much Data Replication is Enough?
Due to the nature of cloud hosted systems, it is common practice for a managed IT services provider to store your files in triplicate at each of their numerous data centers that are dispersed in different geographical areas. This can ensure that in the event of any system breakdown or natural disaster, there will be at least one way to recover your information, while allowing normal operation of your business to continue.
How Much Control Does My Business Have Over Our Data?
Even if IT services for your business are outsourced to a tech support company in Toronto, you should still have full life cycle control over it. This includes when, where, and how your data is stored physically, and on cloud hosted systems, as well as how it flows.
You should also be able to make sure that your managed IT services provider enforces the data policies you set, allowing shared folders and files to be automatically and permanently deleted from a user’s device when required, such as when an employee leaves your company. For ongoing protection of your work files, make sure that the system allows users’ accounts to be wiped remotely if their device is lost or stolen.
