The director of solutions architecture at a cloud vendor says the top threat is an insufficient protection of sensitive data both where physical and logical
In today’s computing environment, more and more companies are beginning to work with massive datasets, ranging into the hundreds of petabytes and beyond. Whether it’s big data analytics, high-definition video, or internet-of-things applications, the necessity for companies to handle large amounts of data in their daily operations continues to grow.
The cloud computing model has brought about a fundamental shift in the way businesses seek to meet their IT needs. No longer must companies devote scarce capital (CapEx) funds to the purchase of their own servers, storage, and networking hardware.
MSPs have built their businesses on offering a suite of standard IT services to their customers. But now many of those customers have begun migrating to the cloud, and taking advantage of the unique services the cloud model offers. That should be a warning flag for traditional MSPs. With much of their customer base moving to the cloud, those MSPs that don’t offer their own set of cloud-based services in a managed private cloud risk being left behind.
Perhaps the most vital principle for managing a multi-cloud environment is that the entire system must be managed as a single entity. Although each cloud platform has its own native management console, users should never be required to use different procedures for each cloud…
Preventing a cyber attack should be one of, if not the main goal of your IT department. Your press releases need to focus on things like your outstanding awards, exciting new product lines, and the addition of stellar new industry talent to your roster. You don’t want to be issuing press releases trying to explain how you leaked 1,500 customer identities or allowed other sensitive data to be exposed to the deep recesses of the Dark Web (like the much feared and dreaded Panama Papers) — or worse, published on the searchable Internet at large (Sony and Ashley Madison ring any bells?).
Of all the business cloud storage configurations possible, the hybrid cloud has gained popularity more rapidly than either private or public clouds. The private cloud can be costlier, not just in terms of acquiring the hardware and such, but also in terms of the time and effort it takes to manage and maintain. The public cloud is typically the cheaper and easier option, but may come with questions regarding whether these options comply with industry and/or federal and state regulations and how secure and transparent these cloud services are. That drives businesses to opt for the hybrid cloud solution, which gives you the power to keep your most sensitive and closely-guarded data under your own roof, while taking advantage of the low-cost and convenience of the public cloud for less sensitive and unregulated data. What are some ways to securing your hybrid cloud solution?
What is the most valuable asset of your company? Is it the office building, the chairs, the furniture, or perhaps the computers and laptops on employees’ desks? Is it the people? For most enterprises, none of these things are at the heart of the business. Instead, the value of a company is in the intellectual property (IP) it owns and that translates directly to information or data.
Following my presentation at Cloud Expo: The Cloud Needs to Look More Like the Data Center, I contributed the following article ‘Storage: You Once Were the Weakest Link’ to Cloud Computing Journal, describing why storage challenges in the cloud had arisen from critical business concerns and kept enterprises from migrating their applications to the cloud.
