Trusting your data to a third party can be a big step - how can you be sure it is safe, what happens if something goes wrong, who owns the data and how is your privacy protected? Before trusting any Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider with data, especially your confidential financial information you need to trust them implicitly. Here at Imbercal we are completely open about our practices and you can always call or email us any time to discuss any concerns you may have.
There is often a believe that information held on your computer is more secure than sending it across the internet to a big server farm and letting someone else maintain it. When you actually look into it however, SaaS quickly becomes a more appealing option. Lets look at some of the differences:
Data Storage
How often do you back up your computer? Once a week? Once a month? Never? Did you know that the average hard disk life span is just three years, and is even less for laptop drives. If you drive were to fail, all the information is likely lost, never to be seen again. Imbercal is hosted on dedicated servers at Rackspace in London, the largest hosting provider in the UK, data is stored across multiple redundant servers and backed up on the hour, every hour.
If you do backup your data, where is the data kept? A usb stick in your pocket, maybe its kept on a cd or hard disk at home. If there was a fire or a burglary at your home or office, are your sure you'd be able to get back up and running? Imbercal's data is securely backed up to a remote site in the north of the country every single day. Rackspace's server rooms are equipped with the latest in dry fire suppression systems, meaning the server next to ours could go up in flames and ours would carry on working without interruption.
Data Security
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Do you have a password to log onto your computer? If you do the odds are its either your name or your pets name. How up to date is your anti virus software and how good is your wireless router/firewall. There are so many elements to your home network that the changes are theres a weakness in there somewhere - a weakness that could be exploited by an unscrupulous person to access all the files on your computer. Imbercals server on the other hand are monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (even Christmas day!) for any signs of weakness. The latest Cisco corporate firewalls are the same ones that protects your Online Banking. |
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Transit of Data
Theres often a perception that your data could be intercepted in transit across the internet. Whilst this is possible, its not very likely. (Did you know there has never been a single reported case of Credit Card fraud through the interception of a transmission?) Data transmitted to Imbercal is already encrypted, and for even more reassurance you can choose to encrypt the transmission to the same level as online banking (just check the little box when logging in)
What else should I consider?
There are two other areas you should give some consideration to - ownership of the data and reliability of the SaaS provider. Once again, Imbercal has made this as simple as possbile:
Ownership
The law in this area is still a bit murky, as of yet there hasn't been a test case involving the ownership of data held by a SaaS. Whilst some will tell you they own the data once you've put it in, common sense says to us that we can never claim ownership. All your information can be quickly exported, we can allow access to your account even after your subscription has expired (we dont make you pay to get it) and we can even delete all your data if you so wish.
Reliability
What would happen if the provider you were with suddenly became unavilable? Since Imbercal launched over 18 months ago, we haven't had a single second of downtime. Not one.
Still got questions?
If you've still got questions, don't hesitate to call free on 0800 622 6079, or email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .