Merit Matters Blog

One of the first questions that organizations contemplating a cloud ERP system often ask is, “Just how secure is our data?”

It’s a legitimate question, since entrusting private business data and applications to an outside hosting service makes some organizations uncomfortable. But the fact is data security is a legitimate concern no matter whether an organization subscribes to a Cloud ERP solution or licenses ERP software and implements it onsite. In any deployment model, ironclad safeguards need to be in place to ensure safety of critical client data.

If you are considering a new ERP solution, and security is your biggest concern regarding the cloud, ask yourself the following security-related questions. Are your answers better than ours?

1. Is your production equipment housed in a state-of-the-art facility? An ideal data center should be secure, free of windows, and built with cement or steel fortifications. It should also be located somewhere that is not prone to inclement weather.
   • MAXCloud Data Centers are housed in state-of-the-art, multi-million dollar facilities with building fortifications. For example, our main Data Center is housed underground in a facility that is designed to withstand an 8.3 magnitude earthquake.
2. Please describe your facility’s physical security arrangements. Are they in place 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days a year? Similar to a privacy policy, you should have well-defined and robust security arrangements that are in place at all times. 
   • MAXCloud Data Centers maintain stringent physical security policies 24/7/365 - including armed security guard patrols and video surveillance monitoring with video storage for non-repudiation.
3. Do you contract with an independent, third-party organization to conduct periodic external and internal vulnerability scans? In addition to maintaining an intrusion response system and a prepared response plan, you should frequently commission both routine and unannounced security audits.
   • MAXCloud Data Center perform rigorous internal vulnerability scans, log threats, and are audited for SSAE 16 Type 2 compliance.
4. How often do you back up data, and where are the backups stored? You should have a rigorous program in place for data backups with offsite storage in a secure location remote from the main data center.
   • All MAXCloud ERP customers receive full nightly backups, which are stored daily in an off-site location and are maintained for 7 years. 
5. Do you offer full hardware redundancy to avoid the negative consequences of a power failure? Your company’s data center and backup location should have redundant power supplies, such as battery and diesel generator backups, to avoid the negative consequences associated with a power failure.
   • MAXCloud Data Centers have multiple power sources and redundant incoming lines provisioned in an N+1 configuration for continuous power. Our main Data Center’s backup generators can power a city of 25,000 people - which allows us to go off grid for 28 days without water, electricity, sewer, or natural gas feeds.
6. Does your staff include a highly qualified operations team that monitors the site 24 hours a day, 365 days a year? You should have many certified experts on staff to provide technical support.
   • MAXCloud Data Centers are monitored 24/7/365 by operations staff and security guards. Clients also receive 24/7 technical support from certified industry and product experts.

By deploying MAXCloud ERP, customers can rest assured knowing their ERP system complies with the highest security and reliability standards at a dramatically reduced IT cost.

Are you considering a Cloud ERP solution? If so, sign up now for your very own risk-free, no-obligation 30 day trial of MAXCloud ERP. We will not ask for any credit card / payment information - we just require a business email address.

In a couple of recent posts, we've discussed how companies can transform compliance into business benefits and reduce the cost of compliance. Now let's talk about how system controls in Microsoft Dynamics AX helps with data integrity, data security - enabling organizations to put the controls in place to monitor changes in critical data and policy violations.

First, any data that is posted into Microsoft Dynamics AX is updated automatically throughout the application modules via the setup of posting profiles. So when data in one module is changed, the change is automatically updated in another, providing real time and up-to-date information throughout the system.

Second, with Microsoft Dynamics AX you can prove that your data is trustworthy and has not been tampered with. For example, you can control access to data throughout Microsoft Dynamics AX by managing security restrictions on forms, records and data fields for specific user groups and domains, and define and assign rights according to how you want security restrictions managed.

Third, the Record Center in Microsoft Office helps make sure that vital company records, including critical documents (for example, financial reports, supplier contracts, and customer correspondence), are properly retained for legal, compliance, and business purposes and then properly disposed of when no longer needed. The Record Center in Microsoft SharePoint helps control that records are never automatically modified by the system and helps prevent direct tampering of records by versioning any changes made to document contents and by auditing specific types of changes.

It’s also possible to control data integrity through user-defined and centrally managed controls to eliminate manual processes and the possibility of human error. The audit trail system in Microsoft Dynamics AX enables you to identify the origin of an entry; the user who created the entry and the entry date and time. In addition, the Microsoft Dynamics AX Expense Management feature helps managers define and enforce company expense policies to which employees will be held accountable when entering expense reports. Expense policies can be defined to either:

• Warn an employee that they have violated a policy but allow them to submit their expense report, or
• Prevent an employee from submitting the expense report until they have made the necessary changes to adhere to the policy.

Microsoft Dynamics AX delivers an integrated and automated solution designed to help you manage the risks and costs associated with meeting compliance requirements. Furthermore, it extends your investment in Microsoft products and technologies, and gives you deeper visibility into and control of business practices that you can use to generate a competitive advantage.