SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES NEED NOT BE CONCERNED ABOUT CLOUD COMPUTING

Small and medium-sized enterprises most appreciate the availability and variability of cloud services
Their biggest concerns are about the loss of control over the security of their data

Prague, 16 July 2014 – According to a survey conducted by GfK at the end of 2013/beginning of 2014, which was commissioned by T-Mobile, representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) behave rather irrationally with regard to corporate IT. They do not trust cloud solutions even though the security of these solutions is often much greater than the security of their corporate networks. However, only less than one-tenth of SMEs have an utterly negative attitude to cloud computing, whereas the concerns of the remaining ninety percent are based more or less on lack of knowledge.

Two-thirds of the respondents have no idea what cloud computing can offer them; therefore they have never thought about using this service. Twenty-eight percent of those familiar with cloud computing speak highly of the solution, as they pay only for the services that they really use. One-fourth of them appreciate that they have access to their data and applications from anywhere. However, a large part of the companies are concerned about insufficient data security (53%) and inconvenient data backup (11%).
International experience, supreme care

“I personally understand that customers are afraid of placing their data in the unknown environment of the public cloud,” says Martin Záklasník, Vice President Business Marketing at T-Mobile, adding: “On the other hand, we all rely on external services from, for example, accounting and law firms, we have our cars serviced at garages, and so on. On behalf of T-Mobile, I can promise all customers that we pay great attention to the security of their data stored in our Czech data centres and that we certainly are not anonymous to our customers.”

T-Mobile operates two data centres in the Czech Republic, both located in Prague. Customers thus know exactly where their data is stored, which can be important, for example, in dealings with tax authorities. Deutsche Telekom, the parent company of T-Mobile Czech Republic, has 90 data centres around the world, with 50,000 employees ensuring their operation. Additionally, it has experience with telecommunications and IT services, which makes the company well placed to offer tested and proven infrastructure and application cloud services with high-level security in the Czech Republic.

Thanks to the high level and quality of the services, private, hybrid and public cloud computing from T-Mobile has been used by a number of international and local companies. The companies that have placed their trust in the dynamic use of the operator’s IT resources include, for example, NET4GAS, a pipeline operator which uses a virtual data centre, and the successful Czech company Software602 with its SecuStamp.com project.

One of the main concerns of users is the perceived possibility of losing control over their data. Although they are often unable to perfectly secure their servers located in their own premises, they feel that they have everything under control. According to a survey conducted by Check Point Software Technologies, more than half of companies were attacked by malware in 2013, a number of them repeatedly. Yet 78% of them believe that this is due to internal employees’ insufficient knowledge of computer security. Moreover, company IT administrators admit that 61% of successful attacks are caused by malware exploiting new vulnerabilities (zero-day attacks) or vulnerabilities to which administrators did not have time to respond by updating security. Conversely, the data centres in which T-Mobile operates its cloud services are very well secured.

T-Mobile Czech Republic, a member of the international telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom, has almost 6.2 million customers, the number-one operator in the Czech market. T-Mobile is an integrated operator: in addition to telecommunications services, it offers comprehensive ICT solutions not only for companies, but also for other organizations and individuals. It provides outstanding services in the high-speed network, which was proved repeatedly by benchmark testing performed by umlaut (former P3) with Best-in-Test seal.

T-Mobile Czech Republic places emphasis on taking a responsible approach to the environment and society. It adheres to fair business practices, helps beneficial applications and services to see the light of day, supports non-profit organizations, small businesses and individuals, and lends a helping hand whenever crisis situations arise. The company’s employees serve as volunteers in many places across the entire Czech Republic.

More information about the company is available at www.t-mobile.cz, www.t-press.cz (the portal for journalists) and www.t-mobile.cz/pomahame (information on the company’s CSR activities).

Contact details of the press unit: press@t-press.cz.