Advantages and dangers

Advantages of cloud services

Cloud services are often offered in such a way that customers can use, expand or reduce the services at very short notice. Ideally, users do not notice that, for example, further storage is added due to increased usage in order to offer the services in the promised quality.

Customers do not have to operate hardware and software themselves, which sometimes requires complex setup. This is particularly advantageous when the scope of use is reduced again. With paid cloud services, you regularly pay only for the ongoing operation, which is billed in short periods of time - sometimes by the hour!

The services are operated in networks or via the Internet by specialized providers. They look after the hardware and software in data centers designed for this purpose - users do not have to worry about this.

Dangers with cloud services

If cloud services are not operated on the user’s own computers, the data must be entrusted to third parties.

While private individuals often resort to free offerings where they share the services with a large number of others (“public cloud”) and which are often operated abroad, public authorities and other institutions regularly choose “private clouds”. They then have usage contracts in which data security and access protection are essential contractual elements alongside availability, which is often the main focus for private users.

Otherwise there is a risk that

• Third parties have unauthorized access to the data,
• providers using the data for their own purposes,
• data is lost or not available in a timely manner,
• unnoticed copies of data are made by providers and may not be deleted.

These dangers can be prevented with the right protective measures!