Your endpoint security may not be doing what you think it is. Do you wake up at night shaking, caught in a nightmare where billions of sentient machines erupt through the walls of Zion, as portrayed in The Matrix Revolutions? If so, your cerebellum may be desperately trying to communicate a vital message regarding the state of your Internet security. Read the headlines if you have any doubts...
"Visa,MasterCard Impacted by Massive Data Breach"
"Call Center Workers May Be Stealing Your Financial Data"
"Android Malware is Fastest-Growing Category in IT Security"
As a business owner in the Internet industry I can tell you every day we are faced with trillions of malwares, viruses, thieves and hackers, each with the vicious intent to snag our valuables and crumble our empires. In The Matrix and its pursuant sequels, each character's existence was fraught with defending the right to life against an army of life-sucking robots. Sadly for an IT department, fighting security threats is equal in proportion. This is costly and time-consuming. We function in a world of technology that is always "on." What if you can't be like some of the members of your parent's generation, defiantly proclaiming they will "never, ever connect to the Internet?" We are all looking for the "One" security solution to save the world.
Surviving the Potential for Attack
Until recently, endpoint security has been frustrating and complex. Every time a new piece of computer equipment was added to your office, security software had to be manually installed. Daily maintenance and updates had to be performed on each machine. Depending on the intricacy of your systems, it could be expensive to pay for multiple licenses and upgrades. Even if you attempted to bypass some of the manual activities by using a VPN client, how easy was it to ignore the start up because it was too much effort?
The moment anyone takes a portable laptop, mobile device or portable storage device to a public venue, your data is no longer contained within your safe walls. We are challenged to provide stable security in a rapidly expanding threat landscape where attacks increase in sophistication, yet mobility is necessary to compete in the marketplace.
Simplifying Your Endpoint Security
Give yourself a break. There is no way you can hope to provide adequate security by adding layer upon layer of protection at the endpoint. This uses up too much of your valuable system resources. It gets out of control, beyond manageability.
Currently, the most effective solution that helps you stay ahead of the threat environment is a hosted, subscription-based model, or "cloud." It means you can get rid of a plethora of paid services and licensing for antivirus, firewall, antispyware, email security and host intrusion prevention technologies. You may even be able to cut back the size of your IT department or the number of your outsourced vendors. The "cloud" handles your security requirements, which you or anyone in your company can successfully manage from a unified Web-based console.
You never need to login to the corporate VPN. As long as you are connected to the Internet, you have the advantage of automatic security updates protecting you from the latest threats. It goes along with you in your business travels. Your IT managers don't need to touch your laptop, since they define the security parameters from the same Web-based console as you. The result is increased safety and order without pain.
And now for the pièce de résistance: the reduced investment. You pay for "cloud security" as a single, cost-effective subscription. If you never had an IT security department, chances are high you can get by without it. This is as close to the omniscient power of the "One" as it gets for endpoint security. How do you like "them apples," Agent Smith?
*Note: This was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Do you have a small business story that you'd like to share? Sign up with the Yahoo! Contributor Network to start publishing your own finance articles.
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