Performing a risk assessment on customer analytics software vendors
Nowadays, most businesses are moving towards software as a service (SaaS) to provide them with big data solutions while maintaining their security. Customer analytics software vendors offer their customers a cloud-based technology in which to store all of their data, but it’s important to know whether it’s a multi-tenancy or single-tenancy cloud. Most vendors will offer a multi-tenancy cloud, while a select few, including Glassbox, will offer a single-tenancy cloud. But, what does this truly mean in the grand scheme of cloud security and risk management in the digital age?
It is simple. A multi-tenancy cloud means that your data is sharing space with the data from other customers of the vendor you have purchased your SaaS from. A single-tenant cloud means that the cloud is solely dedicated to your company and its data. You will not be sharing space with any other ‘tenants.’ When it comes to selecting a SaaS from the myriad of customer analytics software vendors you need to be aware of the risks associated with multi-tenancy in comparison to single-tenancy.
Multi-tenancy: The risks
The primary reason that many businesses go with a multi-tenancy cloud solution is because it is significantly cheaper. The issues arise once you start to think about the fact that your data is in effect sharing the same space as many other customers’ data. The possibility for the wrong party to gain access to your data is there. This could be through some glitch in the system, or data accidentally being returned to the wrong portion of the cloud. If your data is being stored next to tenants who are your competitors in the digital marketplace then you could be in for some big trouble if the wrong data sets leak out or are shared.
Another major issue can stem from interference during the big data customer journey. Each tenant sharing the system has different needs. Some may need to completely overhaul their data and require constant updates, while other may simply overload the system with data dumps. These scenarios can have disastrous results for those sharing the cloud. This means that a very thorough system of checks and balances needs to be in place to ensure the safety of each tenant’s data so that they don’t find themselves in a situation where their data is compromised or they are compromising each other’s access to data.
When your company is sharing space on the cloud with other companies, you are in essence, at the whim of their use of the cloud. You may discover that your access to your own data is curtailed because someone else is running a major update, or because they have angered someone who has initiated a DDoS attack against your shared cloud.
Single-tenancy: The benefits
When you are researching customer analytics software vendors, you will want to seriously consider just how secure you want your data to be. A single-tenancy SaaS platform, like the one that Glassbox provides, offers you and your data a level of security that a multi-tenancy provider cannot. You have your own cloud, all of your data is stored there, any upload or automated process that is needed can be done without the worry of how it may affect the other tenants. There is no worry of a data breach, because there is nobody else on the system who will have access to it. What you are getting is piece of mind and a service that can mine your data for trends in a methodical and highly personalized manner.
If you work in an industry where data integrity matters, especially if you are handling sensitive customer data, you take these concerns seriously. Single-tenancy provides more security and more reliable access to your data. Your data deserves its own cloud.
