Security Overview:
How secure is your sensitive business data?
Recent statistics have shown that more than half of sensitive corporate data resides on user desktops, laptops, and removable USB drives. This data can represent months or years of work. Losing this data is not only frustrating, but more importantly, extremely damaging to the company. Productivity aside, theft or loss of sensitive data puts organizations at serious risk of regulatory penalties, privacy violations, and brand equity damage.
Software-as-a-service has built-in security advantages
Data security includes not only protecting data against theft or loss, but also ensuring that the data is always available. Employees historically have saved data on to CD/DVD, portable memory sticks, laptops, etc. so they can work outside the office. Software-as-a-service ensures that data is securely available from anywhere, so employees don't need to save sensitive data to insecure portable devices.
Why is our Apps secure?
Our apps are powered by Google. Google operates one of the largest networks of distributed datacenters in the world, and they go to great lengths to protect the data and intellectual property on these servers. These facilities are protected around the clock and they have a dedicated security operations team who focuses specifically on maintaining the security of our environment. There are three main components to their security practices:
- People:
Google employs a full-time information security team including some of the world’s foremost experts in information, application, and network security. This team is responsible for the company’s perimeter defense systems, security review processes, and customized security infrastructure, as well as for developing, documenting, and implementing Google’s security policies and standards. - Process: Security is part of the Google DNA. Each application is built from the ground up with security in mind. Google applications go through multiple security reviews as part of the Secure Code development process. The application development environment is closely restricted and carefully monitored to maximize security. External security audits are also regularly conducted to provide additional assurance.
- Technology: Google Apps data is fractured and obfuscated across multiple servers and disks, making it human-unreadable. Data is replicated in multiple data centers for redundancy and consistent availability. To reduce exploit risks, each Google sever is custom-built with only the necessary software components, and the homogeneous server architecture enables rapid updates and configuration changes across the entire network when necessary.
Google – one of the world’s biggest Internet companies - rely on Google Apps themselves
Google trust their own data to the products available to you. Google employees use Gmail for all corporate email, Google Calendar to schedule all meetings and events, and Google Talk to instant message among project teams. They use Google Docs for sensitive content like product design specs
