Project Consultant: Security is Important- PE4U Admin: Houston Corporate Project Consulting Firm

I am not sure what is going on lately. This past month we have had to address/educate 3 potential clients on security issues. The majority of our consulting seems to be revolving around cutting cost and businesses not wanting to pay subscription fees.

I get it no one likes to pay a monthly fee for anything. There are large segments of organizations that would rather pay an onetime upfront cost and avoid lower monthly cost but consider this…

<The Houston Texas Parable>

At the time of this blog post it is September 19th, 2019. In Houston there is a massive amount of flooding going on from remnants of Tropical Storm Imelda. There is flooding in many parts of Houston. Streets are flooded, houses are flooded, and businesses are flooded. However, I am still surprised how many Houston drivers still continue to drive through flooded roadways.

Every time there is massive flooding event the media tells everyone not to drive through flooded roadways. But with every massive rain event there are cars that tried to make it through flooded roadways and get stalled from the high water. Getting their vehicle operable again requires a lot of effort. You have to contact the insurance company to fix your car, you may have missed time from work, you may not have a reliable piece of transportation the list of problems goes on and on.

All of this results in a big headache. Not to mention if your vehicle sustained a large amount of flood damage you may have to completely replace the vehicle. This could be a massive headache. Yet I am surprised by all the people who roll the dice with their cars and try to make it to the other side of the intersection. All the driver had to do is find another way of just wait for the waters to recede.

I say all of that to say this.

I am surprised how many websites and software are not secure. All the business owner of organization has to do is pay the yearly fee to encrypt data. Just like a car in Houston a website or software is usually an important piece of the everyday life of that business.

We hear about security breaches all the time. Websites and databases are hacked and compromised daily. BUT yet many businesses continue to roll the rice. Many businesses have very loose security standards. The risk of a breach could be low (just like the risk of a car getting stalled at a flooded intersection). However, if your business tries to navigate the proverbial intersection of the flooded web of hackers and ransomware you may find your business is in too deep to make it across to the other side. Your website or software solution could get stalled.

Stalled (meaning):

1. Your site has been hacked

2. Your business has been exposed to ransomware

3. Loss in productivity due to down time

4. Loss revenue due to software being compromised or downtime

5. Loss of reputation from customers/client’s information being exposed

6. You may have to rebuild your website or solution from scratch

7. The list goes on and on.

What the savvy business owner or organizations may not consider is when you purchase a subscription you are purchasing software patches, security updates, robust servers etc. This will help mitigate a lot of potential problems for your business or organization. Your software should be up and running 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

I like to think of a good software company is like having a “high water rescue vehicle” at all times with the internet. Your chances of being business being stalled out is greatly diminished with this approach.

I do recommend if a business or organization does try and pay a one-time fee to develop their solution. They should consider having a dedicated professional managing the solution for the long haul. I encourage the developer or organization to weigh the cost of having dedicated person to manage the solution vs the monthly cost of a subscription service.