One question commonly asked by managers considering moving to cloud productivity tools like Google Workspace is: how secure will it be?
As a cloud pioneer, Google fully understands the implications of the cloud model. It’s used those insights to design its cloud services to deliver better security than many traditional on-prem solutions. A recent e-book from Google outlines the principles and practices that Google uses to keep your business secure when using Google Workspace.
1. A culture with a security and privacy focus
For Google’s employees, security isn’t an afterthought but something that influences every aspect of their employment and work. It starts with rigorous background checks during hiring, followed by security training as part of their onboarding.
It continues with policies and tools that ensure people are only ever granted access to the resources they need to do their work, along with regular internal events to raise awareness of security and the latest issues. Of course, Google also employs a dedicated team of security, privacy and internal audit and compliance professionals to support the rest of the company’s activities.
2. IT operations with integral security measures
This includes robust processes for vulnerability management, malware prevention solutions, and a monitoring programme that exploits proprietary analytics to identify unusual activity.
Google has also developed a rigorous incident management process that’s delivered by expert incident responders. Working across many specialised functions, they can ensure responses are well-tailored to the specific challenges of each incident.
3. Technical infrastructure designed to be secure
Google takes a “defence in depth” approach to security, with security and data protection concerns among its primary design criteria when creating and operating its infrastructure and services. This includes:
- state-of-the art physical security for data centres
- custom server hardware and software
- secure disposal of hardware
- encryption of data in transit and in rest
- Google own global network that minimises the opportunities for your data to be attacked or intercepted on the public internet.
4. Services that support customer compliance and reporting needs
Google provides its products and services in a way that helps customers to comply with requirements specific to their industry. This includes independent third-party certifications for multiple ISO standards, along with certifications for sector and country-specific frameworks. That’s why customers across regulated industries such as finance, government, healthcare and education are happy to use Google Workspace.
5. Security-minded data usage and access policies
Google’s philosophy is that Google Workspace customers own their data, not Google.
Google’s detailed Data Processing Amendment lays out how the company handles and protects this customer data. A key point is that it’s never scanned for ad-serving purposes, and there’s no advertising in Google Workspace core services nor any plans to change that. There are also strict controls on the access Google employees have to customer data.
6. Powerful tools for enforcing your organisation’s policies
Google Workspace provides customer admins with a rich set of tools and services to help them implement and enforce their organisation’s own policies.
A key element in this approach is context-aware access which allows access to be controlled based on a combination of factors beyond the user’s identity, such as device status and IP address. This provides secure access from almost any device, with no need to install anything locally, while endpoint management tools let you secure any corporate data held on the device. Customers can add additional measures such as two-factor authentication and single sign-on (SSO).
Naturally, Google Workspace also includes tools to protect you against spam, phishing and malware, as well as for data loss prevention.
Working with a Google Workspace Premier Partner
Ancoris is only one of a handful of European Google Cloud partners with the Work Transformation Enterprise specialisation. Our deployment experts will help you make a smooth transition―for the technology and for the people using it.
A business is only as good as its people – so why not make them extraordinary? Empowering them to work better together not only unleashes their talent and creativity but makes them your competitive advantage. The modern, easy to use applications in Google Workspace make real-time collaboration a breeze. Combine Google Workspace with Chrome Enterprise and you've got the most secure and mobile workplace.
To complement our technical service delivery consultants, we have a dedicated in-house change management and user enablement team to guide you through the process.
If you’d like to find out more about how we can help you to create your own digital workplace, why not take a look at some of our customer success stories or browse our resources. Needless to say, please get in touch with our team if you'd like more practical support and guidance.
