When you’re ready to bring your association’s technology up to date, it makes sense to move to a modern, cloud-based association management software (AMS) system – but it’s important to know that not all cloud-based AMS technology is created equal. The cloud infrastructure upon which your AMS system is built matters.
That’s why NetForum Enterprise recently announced that it’s been rearchitected for Microsoft Azure Cloud Services. Why Azure?
Let’s take a look at what Azure is and why you should care if your AMS is built on it.
What is Azure?
Used by 95% of the Fortune 500, the Azure cloud platform is cloud infrastructure designed to solve today’s enterprise challenges. It serves as the foundation for developers, including those on the NetForum Enterprise team, to build, run, and manage applications that are highly scalable, reliable, secure, compliant, and efficient to operate.
Why Azure versus other cloud platforms?
Azure is ideal for business applications because of its focus on scalability and reliability..
Here are some key things to know about the benefits of choosing an AMS that’s built on an Azure technology foundation:
- Your AMS and related data usage are scalable.
NetForum Cloud takes advantage of auto-scaling within the Microsoft Azure Cloud Services infrastructure – in a nutshell, that means it scales servers up or down automatically, depending on your organization’s data and computing needs. This approach provides optimal performance while minimizing costs.
- Your data remains under your control.
With Azure, you are the owner of the data that you provide for storing and hosting in Azure services. Your data is not shared with advertiser-supported services, nor is it mined it for any purposes like marketing research or advertising.
- Your data is secure.
Microsoft invests $1 billion per year in security to protect customer data from cyberthreats. They also employ more than 3,500 security experts who are dedicated to data security and privacy. In addition, Azure itself secures your data using various encryption methods, protocols, and algorithms, including double encryption:
- For data at rest, all data written to the Azure storage platform is encrypted through 256-bit AES encryption and is FIPS 140-2 compliant. Proper key management is essential. By default, Microsoft-managed keys protect your data, and Azure Key Vault helps ensure that encryption keys are properly secured. Azure key management also includes server-side encryption that uses service-managed keys, customer-managed keys in Azure Key Vault, or customer-managed keys on customer-controlled hardware. With client-side encryption, you can manage and store keys on-premises or in another secure location.
- For data in transit (data moving between user devices and Microsoft datacenters or within and between the datacenters themselves) Microsoft adheres to IEEE 802.1AE MAC Security Standards, and uses and enables use of industry-standard encrypted transport protocols, such as Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Internet Protocol Security (IPsec).
- Your organization is future–ready.
For decades, Microsoft has been on the forefront of technology innovation. And one of the great things about using an AMS built on an Azure foundation is that it benefits from the continuous innovation from Microsoft. That means you’re using software that’s always a step ahead and ready to meet your needs as your organization (and the world) grows and evolves.
Learn more about NetForum Cloud
NetForum Cloud is the reimagined and rearchitected NetForum Enterprise association management system by Community Brands. Much more than a “lift and shift” of existing code, NetForm Cloud has been rearchitected to be cloud native and takes full advantage of the benefits of Azure listed above. With more than 30 modules and almost 20 years of success in supporting mid-to-large sized organizations, NetForum Cloud offers associations the best of both worlds – extensive and proven enterprise functionality with the most modern architecture. Learn more about why NetForum is ready to support your organization for the next 20 years: Explore NetForum.
