12 Data Management Tips for Cloud Storage

Cloud storage can act as a catch-all for data. How many consumers and businesses manage their cloud, which is, to some degree, automated? Images, videos, documents, and data are automatically uploaded and stay there.

There are organized and disorganized ways to manage data. How you manage yours is ultimately up to your personal preferences. Here are some data management tips for cloud storage to remember.

Select Your Provider Wisely

There are many cloud storage service providers, each with different costs, plans, limits, and benefits. Compare and contrast, and select the provider that best suits your storage needs. Ensure you aren’t paying for storage you don’t need.

Sort Your Data By Folder

Create folders. Use subfolders. When needed, use sub-subfolders. Don’t be shy about using folders to add structure to an otherwise structureless cloud. Have standardized names for these folders. This will help you manage your data and stay organized.

It’s also strongly recommended if you’re constantly receiving new data. You don’t want to overload disorganized cloud spaces, so folders are your best strategy.

Create User Accounts

Do not let anyone else use your administrator account for cloud storage. They have different user accounts, each with its own set of permissions. This way, you can track access and behaviour.

If everyone were using the same account, it would be difficult to detect a security breach, which would put your entire cloud storage system at risk.

Be Cautious with Sensitive Information

It’s best not to store sensitive information in the cloud. However, this isn’t always possible, especially for businesses. Be cautious. Make sensitive information inaccessible to the average user. Encryption will serve you well here, ensuring unauthorized parties cannot see the data.

Encrypt Your Data

Encrypt your data in transit and at rest. Look into cloud storage service options for encryption and what you can do to ensure your data isn’t needlessly exposed. Using passwords, decryption keys, and apps specifically designed to encrypt will encode data so that even if there is a breach, without authorization, there is no data to interpret.

Establish Security Protocols

Assign security protocols and procedures to maximize data protection for your data management system. Always use encryption. Centralize data into a data lake to enable visibility and continuous monitoring. Implement access controls, as mentioned. Set strong passwords and multifactor authentication. Ensure team members are trained on best data security practices.

Declutter Your Data

Periodically review your cloud storage data. Just because you’re collecting transactions, security logs, and all sorts of data does not mean you must keep it in the cloud. Move it off. Delete what you don’t need. Review all files and folders and eliminate duplicate or irrelevant files you no longer need to use.

Create Project Files

Some data will be more frequently used than others. Ensure you create project files where the needed data is accessible. This makes it easier for teams to access data, be productive, and collaborate. This also makes it easy to set permissions if you invite a guest by email or create a shareable link to give to a teammate.

Compress Data Where Possible

Images and videos can take up a lot of space. Unless you must retain the original file, compressing what you can is a reasonable way to maximize cloud storage. This can easily chop off thousands of megabytes and save cost and space. It may also improve cloud storage with more optimized file structures.

Set Up a Clear File Structure

Set up a hierarchy for your files. Apply naming conventions to every file and folder so that when searching for a specific term, you will be led to the file with that term. Naming conventions help keep your data organized and interpreted correctly if you export data from your cloud service into other programs.

Use Data for Analytics

A helpful data management tip for cloud storage is to use data. Run it through analytics. Discover insights from your data that you may not know.

If you are a business, consider what you can do with your data. The last thing you want to do is allow it to sit there unseen and without adding value when it has the potential to do so.

Schedule Data Backups

Back up your data regularly. This can be done on an automated schedule, so you don’t need to worry about it. When you have your most recent data backed up, your data is not lost if there is a business interruption, system failure, or security breach. Even if you can’t retrieve it from its primary location, you still have a backup to work from.