An article in today’s USA Today discusses the distinct advantages for small businesses to mitigate their risks of falling behind in technical flexibility by moving to the cloud. Many good points are made in the article.
Points such as a greater ability to collaborate, greater mobility were well taken. But then the article even went so far as to say that the cloud offered greater security…
Wait WHAT??
The article did not explain how moving your most sensitive documents, calendars, contacts and internal communications off of your own computers and onto someone else’s servers increased your security. It just said “Check out this alarming stat Ms. Boeger shared with me: 72% of all cyber threats now are aimed at small business.”
Yikes – that sounds scary doesn’t it??
It sure is, and it’s true. But I believe that moving to the cloud and placing your most sensitive digital property under someone else’s control will weaken your security, and not increase it. Corporate surveillance and the erosion of your private digital property rights increases the more you allow other companies to control your data.
So how can you get the technological flexibility you need while retaining your own digital property rights and control?
NextCloud – is an open source (and so peer-reviewed) “personal cloud” that you own and control for your own company. NextCloud resides on YOUR computers, and allows you to secure and retain control of your property while gaining all of the technical advantages of collaboration and mobility that cloud services offer.
NextCloud is free software. It requires some expertise to set it up and maintain it. And because it is open source, you can use that expertise to customize your installation to be exactly how your business needs it to be. Over the long run, your increases in capability and security and secure ownership of your digital property will be greater than anything Google Drive or Dropbox or Microsoft Cloud can ever give you. And you can do everything they can do.
Yourself.
Most small business owners I know see that as an advantage.