Skip to main content
Updates

Microsoft adopts first international cloud privacy standard

By 18th February 2015April 1st, 2022No Comments

 

On February 16th Microsoft announced that it was the first major cloud provider to adopt the world’s first international standard for cloud privacy.

The new standard, known as ISO/IEC 27018, was developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to establish a uniform, international approach to protecting privacy for personal data stored in the cloud. There are 5 key reasons why Microsoft’s adoption of this cloud privacy standard is important:

  1. You are in control of your data. Microsoft will act only on the instructions of its customers and will not process personally identifiable information without strict customer guidelines.
  2. You know what’s happening with your data. Microsoft will, at all times, keep you informed about the status of your data and provide 100% visibility of partners that are working with your data.
  3. Provide strong security protection for your data. Microsoft ensures that there are defined restrictions on how it handles personally identifiable information, including restrictions on its transmission over public networks, storage on transportable media, and proper processes for data recovery and restoration efforts.
  4. Your data won’t be used for advertising. This is simply a reaffirmation of Microsoft’s longstanding commitment not to use enterprise customer data for advertising purposes.
  5. We inform you about government access to data. The standard requires that law enforcement requests for disclosure of personally identifiable data must be disclosed to you as an enterprise customer, unless this disclosure is prohibited by law. Microsoft has already adhered to this approach.

Microsoft has made it a core ambition to be at the forefront of cloud data privacy and security. This was evident when in Arpil 2014, the European Union’s data protection authorities found that Microsoft’s enterprise cloud contracts meet the high standards of EU privacy law. Microsoft Azure became the first E.U. approved cloud platform.

For Big Red Cloud, it reaffirms our choice to select the Microsoft Azure platform to host our online accounting software. Fears over cloud security and how companies can access and use personally identifiable information are quite understandable. Microsoft, to its credit, is setting the standard by which all other cloud providers will be measured.

It’s true what Microsoft say, customers will only use services that they trust.

Marc O'Dwyer

Marc O'Dwyer

After completing a Graduate program in Marketing, Marc’s impressive sales career began at Allied Irish Banks, Pitney Bowes and Panasonic where he received numerous Irish and European sales performance awards and consistently exceeded targets and expectations. In 1992, Marc’s entrepreneurial spirit led him to set up his own business, Irish International Sales (IIS). Initially, this company was a reseller for Take 5 Accounts and Payroll software. Within four years, IIS became the largest reseller of Take 5 in Ireland, acquiring four other Take 5 resellers. He also found time to set up two mobile phone shops under the Cellular World brand and a web design company offering website design services for small businesses. In 2001, he bought the majority share in a small Irish software business, Big Red Book. At that time, the company was losing money. The company became profitable within two months, and Marc then acquired a payroll company to compliment Big Red Books Accounting products. In 2003, IIS were appointed as Channel Partners with SAP for their new SME product, SAP Business One. Marc sold his Take 5 business and concentrated on developing this new market for SAP As a result, by 2007, IIS was recognised as the largest Channel Partner for SAP in EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa). In 2008, the IIS Sales Manager bought the Company from Marc in an MBO. He launched Big red cloud in June 2012, the online version of big red book, to date the company successfully converts 59% of trials into sales and the number of customers is growing rapidly. Marc continues to run both Big Red Book and Big Red Cloud which now support 75,000 businesses. He is a very keen sportsman, having played rugby for 20 years, represented Leinster at under 16 and under 20 levels, and league squash with Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club for 10 years. Marc has competed in 11 Marathons, including the London and Boston Marathons, and has completed several Triathlons and Half Ironman races. He has also completed six Ironman Races in Austria(x2), Frankfurt (Germany), Nice (France) , Mallorca (Spain) and Copenhagen (Denmark)