Business continuity management with Google Workspace - a good plan

In terms of security and availability of applications, services and data, leading cloud providers do a solid job. Downtime is hardly noticeable and there are numerous security measures in place. Nevertheless, even large corporations cannot guarantee 100 percent security, as the Microsoft 365 outage in January showed. In order to be able to continue with their daily business as usual, companies should look into the topic of business continuity management. In doing so Google Workspace pays off in any case.

If software fails or cannot be used due to hardware problems, or if access to applications or data is not possible as a result of cyber attacks, for example with ransomware, immense damage can quickly occur. The more employees a company has, the greater the damage tends to be. Concrete possibilities include, for example, lost sales, but also claims for damages and damage to the company's image, right up to the point of jeopardizing its economic existence. The Allianz Risk Barometer shows that such scenarios are real. According to the survey, cyber incidents and business interruptions are the biggest risks worldwide this year.

What is Business Continuity?

In order to be prepared in the event of an emergency, those responsible in companies should address the issue of business continuity in good time. This refers to strategies, plans, measures and processes that are used in crisis situations so that IT processes are not interrupted or can be restarted immediately. A good business continuity plan helps to react quickly in various critical situations. Google Workspace is a solid component of this plan.

For example, the tools can act as reliable fallback solutions so that communication and collaboration are maintained in the event of a primary system failure. This enables companies that are required to have a fallback solution according to the guidelines of the financial services regulator BaFin to comply with the regulatory requirement.

Google Workspace offers protection out of the box

In addition, Business Continuity Management with Google offers many other advantages. One is without question the simple and fast activation due to automated, standardized processes. Google also scores points with its security functions, which are available out of the box and can be activated additionally. For example, the Gmail e-mail service blocks phishing e-mails. If an e-mail does get through, users are notified, for example, of a current virus check, or Google checks any attachments. Suspicious elements can be opened in a sandbox before they are forwarded to the user so that no damage is done.

The Chrome browser also has protection against downloading malware or visiting phishing sites. BeyondCorp Enterprise's built-in features ensure that employees only access sensitive corporate data from browsers that have additional protections enabled. Downloads can be verified and file upload protection prevents malicious files from entering the corporate environment from infected devices. Real-time phishing protection means that every URL a user clicks is scanned for phishing or social engineering. Administrators gain visibility into security events across their entire browser fleet.

Despite all this, if a user has downloaded a malicious file and wants to open it from a ChromeOS device, the execution will be blocked. Even if it could be executed, the OS files are kept in a separate hard drive partition that apps or extensions cannot access. Also, the cloud-first nature of ChromeOS means that files are stored in the cloud, so they would be recoverable in Google Drive. All data is encrypted by default and in a unique way when retired. Even if an attacker could compromise a single key or gain physical access to the storage, they would not be able to read the data. All of these are just a few examples. Beyond that, much more is possible in the context of business continuity management.

Security like at Deutsche Börse

This is demonstrated by the application example of Deutsche Börse AG, which uses Google for business continuity, among other things. The group relies exclusively on leading global infrastructure providers, including Google Cloud, as part of its multi-cloud strategy, as described in the case study. Deutsche Börse will be one of the first users of Google Cloud VMware Engine, which allows companies to run existing VMware workloads natively in Google Cloud, he said. In addition, Deutsche Börse will be able to fully focus on process design and implementation with SAP in Google Cloud. This, he said, not only meets regulatory requirements, but also fulfills the group's own ambitions to continue to scale as well as leverage technology for industry innovation. This is because as Deutsche Börse increasingly migrates its workloads to Google Cloud, it will be able to leverage products such as BigQuery and Google Cloud AI products to gain even deeper insights into its data as well as automate more of its operations. All of these new capabilities pave the way for further adoption of cutting-edge analytics and AI tools.

But even companies that are not Deutsche Börse can use Google to minimize their dependence on one provider, improve resilience and ensure business continuity. We would be very happy to support you with your business continuity management.