SaaS Security, the Age-Long Debate

Michael Osterman of Osterman Research submitted an entry to Messaging Wire a couple of days ago about the misconception that the SaaS delivery model is less secure than your average on-premise solution.

He made some excellent points and did so in short order. The following two resonated with me:

• Education is the key. Take the time to help decision makers understand how secure (or insecure) their on-premise infrastructure and data transmission actually is.
• Help prospective customers to understand that their internal security procedures may be giving them a false sense of security. Is it particularly difficult for an employee to gain access to a server room and run off with a backup tape or external storage device? In many cases, it's not.

Osterman goes on to suggest that leading SaaS providers are able to offer better security because they have access to far more resources than most organizations do with their on-premise implementations. We couldn't agree more.

This entry is just a precursor to a study that Osterman Research will be publishing shortly. We're certainly interested in seeing and addressing the statistics associated with the security aspect of SaaS.