Security in the cloud is safer, cheaper and better than doing it yourself.

The conventional approach to protecting your computer has relied on anti-virus programs that often suck up the computer’s resources by scanning for malicious software (malware) instead of running your word processor, spreadsheet or browser.

Thanks to higher internet speeds, there are cheaper, more effective alternatives available. Security software vendors also offer their software as a service from their large data centres.

All your emails, web pages and sometimes phone calls can be sent and received through one of these data centres which are packed with high-speed computers that can scan all your emails and website traffic for you before they reach your computer.

<!–:sh–>This security-as-a-service provides<!–sh:–> what is called a “clean feed” because everything sent over the Internet has already been filtered for nasty content before it reaches the computer network on your premises. Using an intermediary to scan for malware is in some ways safer than doing it yourself.

This is particularly effective against the highly dangerous viruses which race around the world every two years and often spread faster than businesses have time to update their antivirus software to stop them. Security vendor data centres monitor all Internet traffic passing through their networks and quickly identify suspicious emails, then label and block instances of that email from reaching their destinations before the virus itself has been identified.

The service is quietly acknowledged by security vendors as the fastest way of stopping a new virus and therefore the best protection against them. This service offers other advantages. Because they also block spam, it removes the need for your firewall or dedicated anti-spam device to do the same. This puts less pressure on your internet connection and should increase slightly your internet access speeds.

The other advantage is that there is less need to run resource-hogging antivirus software on every computer in the office because the viruses have all been stopped at the gate.

An important caveat, however. Employees can still bring viruses into the office (unwittingly or otherwise) on CDs, DVDs and USB keys, and connect them directly to their computers. A local scanner in this case is the best defence. For prices and more information about security-as-a-service, check out our research pages here.