In the world of ERP security, Acumatica stands out with its modern, cloud-first architecture, while Dynamics SL… well, let’s just say it’s a bit like leaving your valuables in a cave guarded by a dinosaur—reliable once, but maybe not the best choice today.

Cloud Security
Acumatica:
• Multi-layered Encryption: Acumatica utilizes advanced encryption techniques to protect sensitive data, both at rest and in transit. This multi-tiered approach ensures that even if one layer is compromised, other layers of protection remain intact, making it extremely difficult for unauthorized parties to access critical business information.
• Automatic Backups: With automatic, cloud-based backups, Acumatica ensures that your data is continuously saved and recoverable in the event of unexpected disasters, human errors, or cyber-attacks. This eliminates the need for manual intervention and guarantees business continuity.
• Compliance with Global Standards (GDPR, HIPAA): Acumatica is compliant with stringent regulatory standards like GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). This means your data is managed in accordance with some of the most rigorous privacy and security regulations, ensuring that your business can confidently operate across borders and industries, especially in highly regulated sectors like healthcare and finance.

Dynamics SL:
• On-premises Dependency: Dynamics SL is primarily an on-premises solution, which means it requires local infrastructure and IT support. This setup places a significant burden on internal IT teams to manage and maintain security, system updates, and infrastructure health, leading to higher operational costs and complexities.
• Security Vulnerabilities: Without constant oversight and proactive maintenance, on-premises solutions like Dynamics SL can become vulnerable to security threats, including data breaches and malware. The lack of automatic updates means that systems may run outdated software, missing critical security patches, making them more susceptible to cyber-attacks compared to modern, cloud-based solutions.

User Access Control
Acumatica:
• Row-Level Security (RLS): Acumatica’s Row-Level Security offers a highly granular level of control over who can access specific data within the system. This means that administrators can define permissions not only at the user or group level but down to individual records or rows in a database. For example, a sales manager may have access to only their team’s sales data, or employees in a particular department can be restricted to view only relevant records. This allows for data segmentation by roles, departments, regions, or any other business-specific criteria.
• Granular Permissions by Role and Data Segments: This precision in permission settings enables businesses to enforce strict data access policies, ensuring that sensitive information remains accessible only to authorized users. Whether based on departments, geographic locations, or user roles, this capability ensures that the right people have access to the right data at all times, while unauthorized users are blocked, significantly improving security and data governance.
• Surpassing Basic Access Controls: Compared to legacy systems, Acumatica’s RLS feature offers a far more refined approach. In contrast, more basic systems, like Dynamics SL, lack this kind of flexibility and require much more manual configuration to maintain comparable levels of security.

Dynamics SL:
• Basic User Access Controls: Dynamics SL primarily relies on less granular, role-based access controls. This means administrators can define permissions for users based on their role within the organization, but it lacks the deep granularity of limiting access down to individual records or data segments like Acumatica’s Row-Level Security. As a result, sensitive information could be exposed to users who don’t need access to it, unless manual adjustments are made.
• Manual Adjustments: The lack of advanced access control options in Dynamics SL forces IT teams or system administrators to manually define and refine permissions frequently, increasing the risk of human error and leaving systems vulnerable if updates or adjustments are not promptly made. This can also lead to inefficiencies and higher administrative overhead when scaling security practices across larger organizations.

Disaster Recovery
Acumatica:
• Cloud Redundancy: Acumatica leverages cloud-based redundancy to ensure continuous data availability and protection. By duplicating data across multiple servers and geographic locations, Acumatica minimizes the risk of data loss due to hardware failures, cyberattacks, or natural disasters. This redundancy ensures that even if one server or data center goes offline, another will take over, keeping your business running seamlessly.
• Automatic Disaster Recovery: In the event of a disaster, Acumatica’s cloud infrastructure automatically initiates disaster recovery processes. This means data can be restored quickly without requiring manual intervention, minimizing downtime and ensuring that business operations can continue with minimal disruption. Automated failover systems are in place to switch from the primary to the backup environment, ensuring high availability and resilience against unexpected events.
• Minimized Risk and Downtime: With automatic backups and the ability to restore from the cloud quickly, Acumatica significantly reduces both the risks and costs associated with downtime. This is critical for businesses that need to maintain continuous operations and avoid revenue loss, reputational damage, or customer dissatisfaction due to system unavailability.

Dynamics SL:
• Internal Backup Systems: Dynamics SL relies on traditional, on-premises backup solutions, which often require manual processes to back up and restore data. These internal systems are generally less reliable than cloud-based solutions, especially if they are not regularly maintained or tested. This dependency increases the likelihood of data loss due to hardware failure, software issues, or mismanagement.
• Vulnerability to Human Error: Since internal backups in Dynamics SL may rely on manual intervention, there is a higher risk of human error during the backup or recovery process. Missteps such as incomplete backups, incorrect configurations, or delays in restoring data can significantly affect the business’s ability to recover swiftly from an outage or disaster.
• Slower Recovery Times: Unlike Acumatica’s automated cloud recovery, restoring data in Dynamics SL can take longer due to the manual nature of the process. IT teams must intervene, which can delay recovery efforts, especially if the system wasn’t properly configured for rapid restoration. This slower recovery time can increase the duration of downtime, resulting in potential financial and operational impacts.

In conclusion, Acumatica’s cloud-based architecture and advanced security features offer greater protection, flexibility, and control over data compared to Dynamics SL’s traditional on-premises model. To learn more about Acumatica and all of its product features, please contact us at info@polaris-business.com.