Saravanan Krishnan, General Manager, Data Protection Solutions, South Asia, Dell Technologies
The events of 2020 begun the unprecedented shift in the way organisations support their employees in the workplace – effects that we are still coping with to this day. The seemingly overnight pivot to a remote work culture meant that many organisations not only had to address changes in IT processes and policies to accommodate remote work, but also – and this is one of the biggest and most underappreciated challenges – manage, protect and recover data from traditional and modern applications across core data centres, edge locations and clouds.
The initial shift to enable people to work from anywhere was jarring but most organisations are beginning to get accustomed to hybrid work and long-term work from home practices. That said, data cannot be managed in the same ad hoc manner as the rush to implement remote work arrangements.
Data needs storing and equally as crucial, it also needs protection—something organisations are only starting to recognise. IDC reports that the rise of data protection appliances has led to it becoming a US$4 billion global market. Additionally, the Dell Technologies 2020 Digital Transformation Index (DT Index) found that organisations in Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ) cited data privacy and cybersecurity concerns as the no.1 barrier to digital transformation success.
Rethinking data protection
As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, the explosion in data generated at the edge has led to an increase in threats as cybercriminals sought to take advantage of organisations unprepared or slow to react to the accelerated transformation forced upon them. According to another IDC survey published in July 2021, more than one-third of organisations worldwide have experienced a ransomware attack or breach that blocked access to systems or data in the previous 12 months.
Data protection today has to be more than just telling people to be more careful about the websites they visit or reminding them to regularly change their password. In the data-driven, do-anything-from-anywhere world today, organisations have data and applications distributed across multiple locations such as data centres, various work sites and multiple hybrid cloud deployments.
According to the Dell Technologies 2021 Global Data Protection Index (GDPI), 72% of APJ organisations are concerned that existing data protection solutions won’t be able to meet all future business challenges. The concern is well-founded, with 38% of respondents in APJ reporting data loss in the last year and 42% experiencing unplanned system downtime.
Now, more than ever, the way that organisations protect their data requires rethinking that combines proven and modern data protection to address current and future needs.
The home is the new edge
While internet infrastructure is largely capable of handling the increased load brought about by remote work as more and more people work from home, corporate networks also need to be as responsive in the home as they are in a traditional office setting.
Without the same level of service, employees may resort to using their own personal devices to store important data rather than the work equipment for the sake of convenience – for example if the connection to an onsite server times out. This leads to exposed data and the “double handling” or duplication of data across multiple platforms.
The scale of this problem – otherwise known as shadow IT – shouldn’t be underestimated and there is a need to move away from securing just the perimeter to securing all data. If even one person in an organisation is saving information to their personal device, that could end up in a staggering amount of unsecured data if it is multiplied by hundreds, or even thousands, of employees.
To securely manage the enormous amount of data being generated at the edge, organisations need to invest in infrastructure that is flexible, scalable and manageable. According to the 2020 DT Index, 69% of organisations are investing in edge technologies.
Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) decreases complexity, increases scalability and offers the ability to adopt the cloud that suits the organisation. And moving workloads to the cloud lowers costs, delivers more control and improves security.
As businesses look to storage technologies that can help solve this problem it’s critical to understand what the business needs are – both today and in the future.
Data governance is another critical area that requires attention. Data must be kept safe and managed correctly while maintaining accessibility to help mitigate the problem of employees storing it locally and potentially leaving organisations exposed. The adoption of new infrastructure will ensure that data is kept within reach of the people who need to use it.
Managing unstructured data at the edge
The 2021 GDPI survey also revealed that globally organisations are managing more than 10 times the amount of data they did five years ago. Unstructured data being generated at this new home-edge forms part of the mammoth 14.6 petabytes of data managed in 2021. Collecting unstructured data is one thing, but the real challenge is in accessing, understanding and keeping it secured. Organisations are faced with the daunting task of finding what they need in this huge pool of unstructured data thanks to the volume, location and inherent unstructured nature of data.
However, storing unstructured data has become easier thanks to the prevalence of all-flash, hybrid and archive NAS platforms that appeal to all budgets. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are being used to explore and analyse unstructured data. Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Pattern Recognition algorithms and Speech-to-Text conversion all have a role to play in sorting through and understanding data.
The importance of a trusted data protection service provider
Protecting the endpoint has become an important element in securing data. Having a consistent and strategic data management and protection process in place is therefore vital to keeping the business on track. But between running the business and managing these IT concerns, organisations can’t do it all alone.
The new normal will require organisations to invest in their edge and core security capabilities. As a result, data protection requires a thorough and systemic approach to protect an organisation’s most valuable resource – data – in its most vulnerable place – the edge. Organisations must be able to trust a service provider who can provide them with a holistic cybersecurity and data protection strategy that keeps pace with the evolving digital landscape – from having best-in-class data management solutions to enhancing cyber resilience within the business.
