There is a misconception afoot that storing your business data on site is somehow more secure than storing it at the facility of an on-demand, software as a service (SaaS) provider. But is it really more secure at your business? Part of the problem that many business people have with software as a service security is the notion that data in motion is somehow more vulnerable than data at rest. This is certainly how Hollywood sees it. They always have people stealing data in transit. Actually, data that's stolen is almost always data at rest, sitting on some server that gets hacked. This was precisely what happened at ChoicePoint and several other high profile security breaches in recent years. Sure, if you are the NSA you may have the tools, technology and resources to snag emails in transit, but these 'man in the middle' attacks are very rare because most idiots don't have the tools, technology or resources for them. Instead, they simply do the old smash and grab and walk out with some SME's server, not because they want the encrypted credit card information, but because it was the largest computer in the room. Phil Wainewright had an excellent article recently about why on-demand software as a service is better than conventional on-premise software, the theme of which is that on-demand enables customers to focus on their business while the software vendor laser focuses on the software business. The result is that the vendor pays a lot more attention to the security issues of the on-demand model; it's their life blood. In fact, when SMEs compare the security offered by on-demand services to the security they offer for on-premise systems they nearly always conclude that the on-demand security is superior. Most large companies don't do that great of a job with security, again witness ChoicePoint. Most SMEs simply lack the resources to secure their systems. If you are in business today the chances are that you have an Internet connection. Therefore, your systems are exposed. If you can't run your business effectively and be a security guru, with the constraint of the 24 hour day, then it's time to get past some of the Hollywood nonsense and take a serious look at a better security, not to mention disaster recovery plan, offered by on-demand software as a service. Take you data out from under the mattress and store it an a professionally managed data center. | 
