Many enterprise-level customers choose to host their IVR application offsite and in “the cloud.”  There are numerous benefits associated with cloud-based IVR hosting.  Plum engineers design, build, deploy and maintain cloud-based applications, which are housed in world-class data centers throughout the U.S. and Europe.

One of the main features of hosted IVR (as opposed to an IVR application deployed onsite) is that Plum continuously maintains the IVR infrastructure.  Data storage needn’t be assembled on company grounds, as a hosted application works remotely via the cloud.  Data dispatches are exchanged continuously via servers, and while the system runs as if the user is sitting right next to it, it is actually hundreds or even thousands of miles away.

IVR system clients often choose cloud hosting because it is a space saver (no messy server rooms onsite), and because hosted IVR applications are meticulously maintained by Plum engineers, guaranteeing the most recent updates and the most high-functioning systems.

Many businesses out there cite these reasons when discussing data migration. On the flip side, how does cloud computing ensure data protection and privacy?  Researcher Noriswadi Ismail from HeiTech Padu in Malaysia has written an article that discusses this very question, inquiring about the adequacy of data protection and cloud computing within the industry.

Ismail interviewed a variety of experts (business, legal and academic) to understand current cloud protections and to assess whether these guidelines are enough to ensure overall security.

To accurately survey each of these respondents, researchers settled on a singular definition of cloud computing: “a large pool of easily usable and accessible virtualized resources (such as hardware, development platforms and/or services).  These resources can be dynamically re-configured to adjust to a variable load allowing also for an optimum resource utilization.”

Ismail stipulates that a telecommunications network provides the service, and that these services are virtualized.

So what did these researchers ultimately conclude regarding the overall safety and security of the cloud?  Stay tuned Virtual Data Security…