A common concern for those thinking about switching to Google Apps is the security of their data. How do you know if you can trust Google with your data? With Google Apps, Google hosts all of your data and to ensure that none of your data is ever lost. Google also stores your data on backup servers. Some people still want their data on their own PC or other storage device though such as external hard drives, CDs, or thumb drives. Fortunately, Google allows you to backup your Docs, so you are always able to keep a backup of your files on you.
However, a common concern is whether Google Apps is vulnerable to hackers. What many people don’t realize is that cloud computing is actually much safer than legacy computing where files are stored on local PCs. A good analogy to use is comparing storing data on your PC as the equivalent of storing money under your mattress, while storing data in the cloud is the equivalent of storing data in a bank.
Google has taken several security measure to ensure that your data is protected such as storing data across multiple servers and obfuscating the data, which essentially means that the data is encrypted to make it unreadable to outsiders.
One of the reasons that Google Apps ends up saving users so much more money compared to an on-premise Microsoft Exchange system is because Google is able to handle the security on the back-end rather than requiring security measures being taken in-house such as firewalls, spam filters, and a continuous cycle of server and software upgrades.
If you want to learn more about the security of Google Apps, you can view this Google Apps Whitepaper (PDF) for more information or you can email me with any questions that you may have.
Here is a video overviewing the security of Google Apps:
