The way British businesses are run has evolved dramatically in the past 25 years. Technology is the major cause of this. There is no longer any need for the ‘old school’ data management methods, such as the index card system and how much actual business correspondence do you get through the postal system? Almost everything about modern business can be broken down into 1s and 0s.

On the whole this technological progress is considered an excellent thing which has made businesses better connected, more efficient and more profitable. To a certain extent this is absolutely true. Nevertheless, businesses still take chances with their technology and therefore the data which is the core of their business. Previously data was secured by a nice, simple locked cabinet behind a locked door. For anyone to access, steal or damage that data they had to physically enter the building, get through the locked door and find the index cards. Technology has undeniably made data sharing easier within a company but it is at a greater risk of being accessed by people without permission to do so, with potentially harmful intent.

There have been many high profile incidents of not properly secured data being lost or stolen. According to an article in the Telegraph 37 million items of personal data were lost in 2007 and open to use by the finder. The losses have been attributed to causes such as; laptop thefts, postal losses of un-encrypted CDs and inadequate security systems failing to prevent hackers gaining access to computer networks. These loses were made by Government officials, Local Government, insurance companies and chain stores to name but a few, according to the Telegraph. If large businesses with big IT budgets are struggling to maintain data integrity then SMEs should be highly concerned about their levels of security.

Many SMEs do not place enough value on their data or seriously consider the consequences of it being corrupted, stolen or completely deleted and therefore do not take the necessary security measures. When assessing the cost of security and support software and packages businesses Brand Levitra need to consider more than the financial cost. The economic concept of opportunity cost, which forces you to consider the total consequence of not taking the alternative option, should most definitely be applied here. In this case, the cost of a database support package may be x pounds but the opportunity cost would be the value of all the business’s data should their database get corrupted or hacked. Presumably the value to the business of their data far exceeds the monthly retainer of a support contract. Therefore, businesses should invest in good quality, regularly updated, managed security software for their servers, network and computers and should buy a database support package in order to maintain a secure, profitable business.

Author Bio: John McE writes articles on a number of subjects including Oracle, database management, database security and database support.

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Category: Computers/Databases
Keywords: oracle management software, database support, data management software, oracle database support