David Totman
I’m curious to know: Where do you do your personal banking? I, for one, am more comfortable with my own hard-earned money being stored in the cloud than tucked under my mattress. And it seems I am one of almost 2 billion people using online banking, globally.
My question is: If we are comfortable having our Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in the cloud, such as banking information, then why are we so resistant to moving our work data to the cloud? Shouldn’t we all feel the same about our workflow data?
Secure your most sensitive data in the cloud
Billions of dollars are transacted everyday via the cloud: Amazon, Bitcoin, Wal-Mart, to name a few. Why? Because solutions on cloud frameworks are typically more secure than many on-premise applications. With on-premise support, if someone breaks into the system, they may have access to everything due to a false sense of security behind a firewall. However, cloud solutions can have multiple tenants with highly secure encrypted packets of information flowing to specific applications via tokens. More importantly, one-way APIs and hardware data diodes can easily secure the most sensitive data.
Easily share your secure data with your team
If you are entered into a sanitary sewer consent decree, do you really want to go down the hallway, ask your modeler to determine GPM for a given pipe and manhole that is surcharging, and then wait an hour for them to determine how many bypass pumps you need to avoid a sanitary sewer overflow? Most likely not. With the cloud, all data is shared with the team and only your team. If there is an overflow, you could just send as many crew members and pumps as you need to the site, but what if there is another one? Today’s cloud-based hydraulic models answer that question in real time, so you are always prepared.
Reasons to switch to the cloud
There are many benefits to utilizing a cloud solution, but let me review just some of the top ones with you:
- Cost: Inherent to cloud solutions are subscriptions that provide a very low cost of entry. If the subscription isn’t working for you, you have the option to cancel.
- Scalability: Practically unlimited scalability in the context of water operations
- Access: Complete water system management from your browser and your phone
- Functionality: Cloud solution providers focus on the immediate business problems at hand and reach parity over time.
- Support: 24/7 service (minus pre-scheduled maintenance windows) are available.
- Implementation: Most bells and whistles are ready to go the moment you log in (after your data is loaded and configured).
- Backup and recovery: Backup and recovery is virtually “ON” all the time and contracted under your subscription.
- Security: Cloud security is typically better than on-premise, and the solution provider’s reputation is on the line, not yours.
Finally, if it’s true that we fear what we don’t understand, then underlying cloud architectures are better left to IT professionals. In this way, water professionals can do what we do best: create and maintain public infrastructure to protect the safety, health, and welfare of the public.
It’s time to let your data and applications escape their silos and improve collaboration and productivity among your team. For more information, take a look at our cloud solutions.