Paperless in the cloud: Taking data security to the next level
When Superstorm Sandy struck in 2013, ROM Reinsurance didn’t know how it would maintain business operations.
Located in Manhattan – right in the middle of the terrible storm – the company lost power and gained three feet of water in its lobby. As a result, ROM lost online connectivity and access to its IT systems, putting its critical business functions on hold.
This included its on-premises enterprise content management system (ECM). Without access to this system – including the important information and documentation stored in it – ROM was unable to provide timely, critical services to people who had been affected by the storm.
As a result, ROM reached out to Hyland to see if we could help get this important system up and running. On-the-fly, we were able to rapidly switch ROM’s ECM deployment from the on-premises solution to one that’s hosted securely in the Hyland Cloud . ROM was then able to access its critical data and documents and start providing help, even while its other IT services remained unavailable.
That’s why we’re so excited about World Paper Free Day. And why we’re celebrating it all week long.
Data + 3 feet of water = no problem for the cloud
“With three feet of water in the lobby, we were very thankful that we eliminated paper, but anxious because we weren’t sure how to keep our business running,” said Marianne Petillo, president and CEO of ROM Reinsurance. “Our data and documents were in our IT systems, and we didn’t have access to them. We reached out to our Hyland representative and discussed transferring our solution to the cloud. Without the assistance of Hyland’s cloud solution experts, we wouldn’t have been able to function and I truly don’t know what we would have done.”
The benefits of going paperless are legion — and the logical next step to take full advantage of the paperless revolution is to store your mission-critical data in the safest place you can: A secure, private, managed cloud.
Content stored electronically on-premises can be very secure, depending on the controls and security in place. However, for top-of-the-line security, many companies look to cloud providers to host their information so it is always available – despite whatever calamities may befall it. If an organization’s physical building is burgled or burns down, much will be lost; but if its essential business documents and processes are preserved in an off-site data center and secondary backup location, the most fundamental part of that business can be back up and running in no time.
3 more reasons to move your information to the cloud
In addition to protecting content in the case of disaster, there are tons of reasons why moving it to the cloud can help your business. Here are three of my favorites:
1. Your IT staff doesn’t have to worry about maintaining servers.
Servers need to be kept at specific temperatures, and they have particular internet connectivity and electric hookup requirements. When your content is stored in the cloud, your team isn’t responsible for this. The experts take care of it for you.
2. Private, managed clouds provide better security.
Often, the level of security provided by reputable data centers that run private, managed clouds is quite higher than the kind of security an organization could practically provide or afford for itself. Depending on the needs of individual companies, controls include guarded access and mantraps, and can go up to biometric controls and beyond.
3. You always have support when you need it.
The best cloud-based providers have service level agreements, or SLAs, that mandate they address any issues immediately. There is 24/7/365 support in the event of any disruption to service.
In the face of disaster, digital file storage — paperless all the way! — protected ROM Reinsurance’s records. And the cloud made its records available when no other IT solutions could. That’s why ROM still uses ECM hosted in the Hyland Cloud.
