Five ways Microsoft Dynamics users can take control of cloud data security

Most organizations today are leveraging cloud computing for some aspect of their business - whether it is core services like email and collaboration, Infrastructure as a Service (hosting) for legacy client/server applications, or storage for backups. But in this age of pass the hash, cross site scripting, and new data breach cases making headlines almost daily, how can you ensure your organization's data is secure in the cloud? 

Even the best cloud providers can fall prey to clever social engineers. However, it is still your responsibility to understand the environment that houses your enterprise data and the security that protects it. Here are five keys that will help you ensure the proper level of data security from your cloud provider.

One: Select the deployment method based on business impact.

Selecting the most appropriate deployment method based on the business impact of the data is a great first step to ensuring data security. Low and Medium Business Impact (LBI and MBI) data may be appropriate to be deployed on commodity-based public cloud solutions. However, High Business Impact (HBI) data like customer information, Personally Identifiable Information (PII), or financials and ERP data should only be trusted to secure private clouds that provide enhanced security and management. 

Two: Understand the risks of a multi-tenant environment.

Deploying HBI data in a public cloud service, or multi-tenant environment, could expose your organization in the event of a data breach. How? In a multi-tenant environment, cloud providers collocate your data with other customers on the same servers. Sometimes they will assign customers their own application server, but they will still have an instance ...