Accelerating Security with SaaS
When you ask a CIO what keeps them up at night, more often than not the number one thing is the security of their applications, data, and network. Cyberattacks on government entities are occurring more frequently, compromising data and operations of critical government programs. Disruptions to these operations have far reaching impacts, going beyond the financial impacts you hear about in private sector. Health and human services programs, in particular, provide a critical safety net for people in poverty. Without these services people will struggle with housing, medication, food, and more. Security of these systems is paramount to serving our most vulnerable populations.
Many states and localities have come to realize that shifting from on-premises solutions to cloud hosted environments can provide more robust security than they could achieve on their own. The economy of scale and financial capabilities of these providers allow them to offer state of the art facilities with maximum security. Simply moving legacy applications to the cloud, however, may not address all of their application modernization needs.
Extending the Value of the Cloud
Did you know that Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) can be a further extension of your cloud strategy?
There are many SaaS solutions on the market that offer key functionality needed by business and program users. Rather than re-invent the wheel and custom create a solution, these SaaS solutions can integrate with existing cloud and on-premises systems of record and further extend the system capabilities to allow for a cohesively functioning and interoperable architecture. The same economy of scale that was appealing when moving to the cloud applies to SaaS, bringing better security to the applications that matter most.
As states and localities are modernizing their programs and practice, they need technology solutions to support and enable their transformation to modern service delivery organizations. Part of this service transformation will include the automation of processes that, in their current state may be highly manual and disjointed. Not only can SaaS provide automation of these processes, but it can also increase security of data and information through timely capturing of data from the point of origination. Getting this data into the system more quickly provides higher levels of protection through secure transmission to the systems of record.
Diona Comprehensive Approach to Security
At Diona, we understand your concerns. The solutions and services we develop and offer are completely focused on the unique needs of health and human services organizations like yours.
Diona solutions are designed and tested to ensure compliance to security standards such as ISO 27001, OWASP Mobile Security Standards, NIST 800-53 standards, and NITST 800-163 standards. Industry standard security is built into every element of our enterprise solutions and the components that deliver them.
An emerging area of data security is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This is an EU-wide law that protects Europeans in regard to the processing of their personal data, as well as establishing rules for free movement of personal data. While this is not a requirement for the US, it does offer data residency requirements that are applicable. This requires SaaS providers to store data in the same jurisdiction as customers as a security protection from cyberattacks.
Transfer of Risk
Another key aspect of SaaS that many CIOs and leaders find appealing is the transfer of risk. Through contract, when an organization selects a SaaS provider, that vendor is ultimately responsible for system security. That’s a big responsibility. Security is their number one priority. As such, SaaS providers employee top talent to ensure that services and data are not compromised.
In many cases, SaaS providers can offer more robust security for hosted solutions than is typical of on-premises solutions. For your workers and the residents served, software should work seamlessly and without interruption. For technologists, there is much that goes on behind the scenes to provide that positive customer experience. With top notch security as the highest priority, SaaS solutions bring peace of mind and more sleep for stressed out CIOs.