Are you prepared to secure your data and critical IT infrastructure

While businesses in every sector have long recognized the importance of data protection, the need for secure data storage has become increasingly critical in recent years. Operational resilience is a boardroom issue. Data is a mission-critical asset. Every business leader must be confident that data and IT infrastructure are fortified, ensuring business continuity in the event of a data loss or breach.

In this context, IT leaders are under pressure to continuously review their data storage and protection arrangements. In fact, according to recent research, many organizations intend to increase their data protection budgets this year, and more than half plan to change their primary backup solution.

So, what trends are impacting data storage and protection? What do these changes mean for businesses? How are secure data storage technologies evolving to safeguard businesses now and in the future?

Three trends impacting data storage security

1. Cyberthreats

First and foremost, cyberthreats and cyberattacks are increasing in frequency and becoming ever more sophisticated. In our hyper-connected world, the consequences of a cyber incident can be severe and far-reaching - impacting your customers, operations, finances and reputation.

1. Complexity

Data and IT landscapes have become complex, diverse and fragmented - from data centers to the cloud, the edge, and everything in between. What's more, services are provided and managed by growing numbers of partners and vendors. These shifts bring new challenges because data storage and protection solutions must integrate seamlessly across different environments.

1. Data protection regulations

In response to the increasing prevalence of data breaches and cyberattacks, regulators are imposing more stringent data protection requirements. For instance, beginning in January 2025, the EU Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) will come into effect for financial institutions. DORA sets new data protection and recovery rules that govern the protection, detection, containment, recovery and repair of data - to ensure the stability and security of the financial system.

It's no surprise, therefore, that organizations are revisiting their data protection needs and evaluating data storage solutions to ensure they can meet these challenges.

Evaluating secure data storage solutions

In our experience working with business and IT leaders, there are five key criteria that enterprises look for in a secure data storage solution.

• Flexibility. Data storage and protection capabilities must readily flex in line with shifting demands and conditions. Solutions must be scalable and agile to meet new business requirements, wherever and whenever needed.

• Simplicity. Many businesses find they are using a range of different data storage and backup solutions and vendors. By reducing complexity, they can achieve full visibility across different environments - with no gaps, blind spots or overlaps.

• Resilience. Preparing for the unexpected is vital. In the event of an error or attack, a rapid response must halt the incident, recover data, resume operations and ensure business continuity.

• Cost optimization. Affordability remains a priority - especially as data volumes grow. When multiple vendors are involved, cost optimization becomes even more challenging, with the potential for annual price hikes.

• Sustainability. To meet decarbonization targets, organizations need to reduce the carbon footprint of all IT infrastructure - including data storage and protection solutions.

To meet these criteria, your data storage and backup capacity and the associated protection and recovery solution must be effective and seamless, no matter if it's located on-premises or in public or hybrid cloud.

Data storage and protection present significant challenges, but innovations in secure data storage have enabled new levels of data safety, agility, efficiency and scalability.

It takes expertise to assess the specific conditions and requirements for data backup, protection and recovery in different cloud environments. In the case of hybrid cloud, additional data protection measures must be considered to prevent unauthorized access and data loss. While cloud-native backup solutions are available, they don't offer all the necessary features for database backups and application-aware backups (which capture all application data including pending transactions, to ensure complete consistency). Additionally, disaster recovery sites are required to ensure sufficiently high levels of resilience.

Taking the next leap forward in data storage and protection

Perhaps the biggest new development in secure data storage is the shift to software-defined services. Traditionally, managed storage capabilities have incorporated hardware and software within the same infrastructure and service. In contrast, software-defined storage is a form of virtualization that decouples storage software from its underlying physical hardware.

Crucially, it means that data is integrated across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, which ensures smooth data flow and accessibility across all platforms. Dynamic allocation of storage and backup resources is fully automated, increasing scalability and agility while reducing reliance on multiple systems.

Another key benefit of a software-defined capability is that it's much more cost effective and sustainable than traditional alternatives, offering as much as a 70% reduction in energy consumption.

Five key questions

For any IT leader looking to reassess their current data storage, protection and recovery arrangements, here are five questions that act as a starting point for discussions with stakeholders and IT partners.

1. How do we classify and assess the value of our data? What is mission-critical and what is not?
2. What are our data sovereignty requirements? Are we compliant with the latest local and global regulations relating to data storage and protection?
3. Based on a business risk assessment, do we have sufficient protection against data loss or breaches from attacks, system failures or human errors?
4. Can we ensure business continuity in the event of a data loss or breach? Are our data and systems fully backed up? Could we manage and recover from a major incident?
5. Do our current data storage and data protection solutions have the lowest-possible carbon footprint?

While the challenges for businesses are significant, the good news is that thanks to innovations in secure data storage, sufficient levels of data safety, agility, efficiency and scalability are all available. The first step is an assessment of exactly what your business needs. From there, the best-fit solutions, services and vendors can be seamlessly integrated, turning technical complexities into business simplicity to deliver value, opportunity and peace of mind.

Our teams have been enabling large enterprises to protect their data and infrastructurefor decades, and we are here to help answer these questions. Get in touch withone of us to get started.

Posted on: October 23, 2024