As news of cyberattacks against large organizations and governments continues to make headlines, system security must be a top priority for every company—big or small. Consider the implications if hackers compromised your company’s supply chain. An attack could effectively shut down order fulfillment, client acquisition, and inventory tracking, among dozens of other online processes. So how can you protect your firm? The answer to supply chain security can be found in the cloud.
Strong supply chain security has two main factors: ecosystem and access. The ecosystem includes everything like your hardware, operating software, and how well your employees are trained in cybersecurity. Access simply refers to how easily someone can hack into your data storage system and tamper with crucial information.
Focusing on the access part of the equation, you have two choices for data storage: on-site and cloud storage. There are four main reasons a cloud environment can be superior.
1. Better Security Expertise
Organizations that try to do network security themselves often fail because they don’t prioritize funding, expertise, and accountability. For example, many firms will trust their IT team with cybersecurity.
On the surface, it makes sense. But IT and supply chain security are two different animals. Your IT team should be focused on network connectivity, hardware functionality, and software updates. Not only is it less secure to leverage your IT staff for supply chain security, but you’re also pulling them away from doing the thing they can be most successful at to help your company succeed.
Alternatively, a third-party cloud provider has one job and one job only: to keep your firm’s data secure. And they have the expertise, workforce, and infrastructure to do it.
2. Better Tools
Keeping your data on-site also opens it up to physical vulnerabilities. What if a natural disaster wipes out your servers? Do you have backup servers? Are those backups verified regularly? How long will it take for the business to resume?
To avoid this, major cloud providers put sophisticated disaster recovery plans in place that allow seamless business continuation. Cloud systems can be replicated in multiple locations around the globe, so if one site goes down, traffic is automatically routed to the next available one.
3. Focused Resources
Hackers are working 24/7 to develop even more effective and sophisticated ways to hack data. An average-sized company handling security in the house will spend at most up to 2 hours a day on system security. Hackers certainly have the overwhelming advantage.
By using third-party cloud storage, your data will be entrusted to experts whose only focus is to keep it safe and secure. So it’s one less worry for you, allowing you to stay focused on growing your business.
4. Cost-Effectiveness
How much are you willing to spend on cybersecurity? To properly protect your supply chain, you need expertise, advanced tools, and ongoing effort. Rarely does an organization has the resources (i.e., money) to spend on all three. And do you want to cut corners when it comes to protecting what’s most important to your enterprise? By bringing in a third-party cloud provider, you’ll be spending significantly less on supply chain security than if you were to try and handle it all in-house.
If you want to learn more about supply chain security, then contact Taylored Fulfillment Services, a fully integrated third-party logistics provider specializing in wholesale, retail, and direct-to-consumer unit fulfillment. Established in 1992 and headquartered in Iselin, New Jersey, Taylored Fulfillment Services operates 1.5 million square feet of warehouse and distribution space near the nation’s busiest ports, including Los Angeles, Long Beach, and New York.