In our previous post, we discussed the advantages of utilizing cloud file storage to keep your business and personal files accessible, organized, and secure. While cloud file storage may not be as flashy or exciting as some of the other technological innovations that dominate headlines like virtual reality headsets or the newest popular smartphone, few products or services have revolutionized the way that entrepreneurs, freelancers, and business managers manage important documents and files.
Properly Manage Your Data
Cloud file storage allows users, even technology novices, to create, edit, and access files from almost anywhere with a wide variety of devices, including laptops, smartphones, and tablets. In addition to accessibility, cloud file storage also offers users a higher level of security and protection for important files. Through file syncing, users can keep a copy of a file on their device and an identical copy of the file in the cloud. While cloud file storage doesn’t offer a foolproof or 100% reliable method of permanently storing files, it does offer a better level of protection than simply storing files on a consumer-grade hard drive or the flash storage on a mobile device. In order to insure that your files stored in the cloud are fully secured and backed up, it is important to ensure that you are properly managing file permissions, deleting files, and backing up your most important files to a third, more secure storage space.
Control Access To Your Files
While uploading files to a cloud file storage provider may initially seem like a foolproof way to backup and secure files, mismanaging file permissions can cause a number of problems, especially if you are sharing access to a cloud storage account with your employees. File permissions allow the administrator of a file to specifically designate who should have access to that file. While keeping a payroll spreadsheet secure on a laptop is fairly easy as it only involves keeping the laptop physically secure, choosing the wrong level of permissions on a payroll spreadsheet through a shared cloud storage account can allow any employee with the right permissions to access the file. The best way to ensure that your most sensitive files are safe and secure from users who shouldn’t have access is to setup a master folder and control access to that entire folder, rather than attempt to manage the permissions of each file that needs to be secured.
Understand What Needs To Be Backed Up And What Needs To Be Deleted
Savvy cloud file storage users know that not all files are created equal – in fact, files should be treated very differently depending on how important they are to your business and if a law or regulation requires that you keep a copy of the file for a specific period of time. The majority of cloud storage providers charge a recurring monthly fee based on the amount of cloud storage used – the more files that are stored on a particular account, the higher the monthly charge. By regularly deleting unnecessary files, you can keep your cloud storage to a reasonable level and reduce the amount of money spent each month.
Make Sure You Keep Multiple Backups
On the opposite end of the spectrum, it is important to ensure that your most important files are backed up, not just on your personal device and in the cloud but also on a secure, local storage device. While it may sound redundant to back up a file three times, laptop hard drives and flash storage on mobile devices are prone to failure, and cloud storage accounts are not 100% guaranteed to be unaffected by hackers or inadvertent account problems that may result in data loss. Purchasing an external hard drive and keeping a regular backup of your most important files can almost guarantee that your most important files will not be lost.