The Advantages of Cloud vs. The Security of VPN

With the high-profile retail hacker attack that went down over the 2013 holiday season, data security is top of mind in corporations around the world. Whether you’re a small, midsize business or a global enterprise, the last thing you want is a breach of your corporate data. So while enterprise IT buyers are enticed by the cost efficiency and flexibility of cloud services, security concerns have them wary of connecting to external cloud assets via the public Internet.

This means the cloud is often relegated to backup and recovery, or to managing discrete functions, such as test and development, rather than to supporting production applications.

Playing it safe—the trade-off

Because data security is so important—especially in industries with strict compliance/regulation requirements—many global organizations leverage virtual private networks (VPNs) for their business-critical applications, transactions and communications. This gives them a highly secure pipeline to connect their corporate headquarters, data centers, branch offices and mobile workers to each other and to the applications they use to be productive.

Although these companies know the economies and elasticity of public cloud services can help accelerate their business processes and deliver competitive advantage, prudence dictates that they play it safe.

The best of both worlds—really

If you’re reluctant to run your business-critical applications in the cloud via the public Internet, it’s certainly understandable. But should you forego the very real advantages the cloud provides because of your security concerns? Enter AT&T NetBond. It’s the marriage of Business VPN with the cloud—bypassing the Internet entirely to provide seamless access to enterprise applications and data.

The idea is to deliver the best of both worlds: the scalability of cloud services at the endpoints with the security, performance, and the reliability of an AT&T virtual private network interconnecting those clouds from end to end.

A network-enabled cloud ecosystem

When it comes to procuring services that support your business, you want choice and flexibility. With this in mind, AT&T assembled a network-enabled cloud ecosystem around NetBond—partnering with world-class cloud providers like IBM, Microsoft, CSC and Equinix to deliver a pre-integrated solution extending AT&T MPLS VPN capabilities into their platforms and services.

With the network-enabled cloud, you can select a highly secure, best-in-class, cloud and networking solution from industry leaders—and sleep a little better, knowing you’ve reduced your risk of becoming the next headline.

How important is flexibility and choice versus security in your cloud solutions? Do you think businesses can “have it all” when it comes to cloud?

Learn more about Business VPN and Business Cloud Services.