Your Data. Their Cloud.
Your Data.
Their Cloud.
By James Hafen, Yardi Systems
In the age of information, one of the
greatest assets any company owns
is its data. Not only is data critical
for operational transactions, it also
provides an intrinsic value for achieving
marketing and Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) goals. Determining
your customers’ needs and how to meet
them requires a calculated approach
to collecting, analyzing and retaining
customer data. Today, businesses are
shifting to third party providers and
web hosting services in a Software
as a Service (SaaS)/Cloud-oriented
environment while reaping great
benefits. The cloud offers efficiencies,
scalability and flexibility and has
significantly changed the landscape of
most business computing environments.
claim or rights to use your data than
if it was privately hosted on a server
in your own offices, including the
aggregate use or analysis of it.
Identity theft may get all the headlines
but data security and privacy is not
strictly limited to credit card and social
security numbers. Third party cloud
and hosting partners can impact
your ability to access your own data
as well as blur the lines as to who
really owns and controls it. These
are issues that must be addressed
prior to entrusting someone else with
one of your most valued assets.
Moreover, in the self-storage industry it
is common for operators to share data
with call centers, kiosk vendors, Internet
Listing Services (ILS), and others.
Defined access, use, and ownership
controls to your data extend to these
additional service providers as well.
Ownership Usage, and Access
When utilizing a cloud solution, the
terms of your contract are critical in
defining who owns the data. It should
be obvious and expected that the data
is yours. Be careful that you are not
relinquishing the rights to your data to
your cloud provider. Treat your data
with the same privacy and access
concerns in the cloud as if you were
hosting it yourself. Remember, a cloud
provider has no more ownership
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Oftentimes the software/service
provider uses a third party for hosting
and in such cases it’s important that
you differentiate between the two. It
may well be that your software provider
is under different terms for accessing
your data than the hosting provider.
Valid support reasons exist for allowing
SaaS and hosting providers access to
your data. However, this limited access
still requires the need for regulated
controls, such as those provided
through SSAE 16, HIPAA, PCI DSS,
and other compliance standards.
Your Data. Period.
The day may come when you need
to get your data from the SaaS
provider. Say you are switching
software providers and need
to migrate your data into a new
system; the question now becomes
a matter of how, what and when.
How?
How can you get your data, outside of
the application itself? Is it a download
you can manually initiate? Do you need
to contact the service organization for
assistance? Are there additional data
SBOA Magazine - Fall 2015
access fees? Most providers charge
a fee for the time required to process
your export request, but it is generally
nominal. If you feel that the fee
charged is excessive or even punitive,
it probably is. Negotiate and define all
fees as part of your Master Service
Agreement to ensure your data is not
held hostage when you need it most.
What?
In what format is your data provided
to you? Is it a standard format such as
CSV or delivered in a spreadsheet?
It is in a proprietary format based on
the database the provider used? Is the
data retrieved in real-time, at a pointin-time, or from the latest backup?
Does your data include meta data*
that, technically, is not your data? Is
the meta data required to properly
use the rest of your data? (*Meta data
is used by the service provider to
define or construct the usage of your
data within the application/service.)
When?
When can you access your data?
Is it a timely process to request and
receive your data? As a rule of thumb,
the more data you have, the longer it
takes to extract and the harder it is to
deliver. Keep in mind that megabytes
are sent with relative ease while
gigabytes and terabytes require added
considerations, including upload and
download capabilities on both ends.
Clear Skies...
Cloud computing over the Internet
is not on the horizon, it’s overhead.
But the skies can remain clear and
sunny in this new world of data and
services in the cloud with just a bit
of extra diligence ensuring your
data remains in your control.
About Us:
James Hafen is the Self-Storage
Industry Principal at Yardi Systems,
having joined the company via the
acquisition of Centershift in 2014.
James previously served as CEO
and CTO of Centershift, Inc. Yardi
is the global leader in providing full
business solutions for every real estate
market, including multifamily, single
family, affordable, public, senior and
military housing as well as office,
industrial, self-storage and retail
market segments, with over 35 offices
and 4,000+ employees worldwide.
www.theSBOA.com