Paul de Vince, commerce, technology and media partner from law firm Gateley plc, explores five areas of tech that all businesses should be thinking about
In a world constantly updating, downloading and storing data in clouds, it’s paramount that businesses are thoroughly prepared for all things tech. From security and regulation to work environment, storage and process, the only way forward is to join the digital age.
Among a bewildering array of developments, five key areas that businesses should be thinking about are: data breaches, GDPR, software as a service, virtual offices and M&A challenges.
Data breaches
Not a year passes without something in the press about data breaches. They are increasingly common and bring extensive ramifications for identity theft of affected users. 14% of all new UK IT vacancies are in cyber security and there’s a known shortage of qualified candidates. If your company hosts mass data then you need to assess your current situation – what have you done to ramp up your security? How qualified is your team? What’s your plan if a data breach occurs? Being proactive is essential.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
With less than a year before the legislation comes into effect, businesses need to start planning. However the right to be forgotten has major implications across IT space. Fundamentally, all major systems are eventually backed up to tapes and stored in massive libraries. Tapes are physical media and you can’t delete individual data segments from them – if you restore them, delete the data then try to back up to them again, you have effectively just lost your backup. Once a backup is completed it is, by definition, a point in time and cannot be altered unless deleted, but failure to comply with GDPR could result in hefty fines.
