Question

Argue for or against the following statement: SaaS ERP is more secure and protects privacy better than on-premise ERP.

Answer 1

The security option varies between SAAS and On-Premise ERP. To some extent, the security depends upon your organiation, the hosting organisations and the security issues they are facing. In any event, for SAAS, the hosting organisation will the responsible for the security and in case of on-premise, the company will be responsible for the same. SAAS applications are web based services hosted though Cloud. Software that is set up on the cloud for access by other people is typically going to be easier for staff to run from anywhere, whether they’re traveling, working in a sales office, or working from home etc.

Often people argue that the running software in-house is safer because you have more control over the servers and how data is protected. While it is true that you can protect the applications if it is running on premise, but the fact is that it requires lot of expertise to handle the security of the applications. Usually, these on premise softwares are not hosted through Cloud, due to which companies have to manage access privileges, data policies, and application security themselves. This will be difficult for some organisations, where they cannot invest on the resources, required to secure the ERP. Even if the companies, invest on the security and try implementing the on premise-ERP, they cannot be sure that, the ERP is secure, as these data can be accessed easily by the individuals, within the organisations. Ther are chances of security breach by the employees, intentionally or accidentally.

On the other hand, SAAS ERP is hosted on the cloud and these services are hosted by the organisation out side the premises. The data cannot be accessed anyone, without proper authentication. Also the SAAS providers are data security experts. Securing the customer data, is their primary responsibility. Their clients’ servers, platforms, applications, and data are proactively managed and protected by a team of certified security experts. SAAS ERP helps to avoid security breaches, which are intended by the employees in the organisation. This also protects from threats like brute-force attacks, denial-of-service, and malwares. SaaS providers also host software in highly secure facilities, which prevents cybercriminals from getting their hands on your company’s mission-critical data. The idea that SaaS applications are inherently more vulnerable than on-premises solutions is more myth than reality. Cloud security is only going to get stronger, adding to a growing list of reasons why more businesses should switch to SaaS. Thus SAAS ERP is more secure than On- Premise ERP.