TALKING
‘‘ business
tThe new environment
This year , largely driven by COVID-19 , cloud adoption has picked up significantly . This is as a result of accelerated Digital Transformation schemes as organisations redefined their go-to-market strategies due to the impact of the pandemic .
But while CIOs previously mandated ‘ cloud first ’, we have noticed a shift to a ‘ cloud appropriate ’ model . This is where organisations look to adopt the appropriate cloud service for the appropriate use case or workload , which is what we call multi-cloud . It ' s not one cloud provider , it ' s multiple cloud providers – things like SaaS , IaaS and PaaS .
So , while organisations think they ’ ll be able to go quicker through Digital Transformation , the reality is they ’ re actually slower because they don ' t have the skills and their IT processes and security technologies don ' t keep up . And that leads to a gap .
Finally , there ’ s a belief that by moving to the cloud , an organisation will automatically be more resilient . For many organisations , a cloud service provider is possibly more secure than their own data centre . But it creates confusion around ownership of that security which opens them up to increased operational resiliency risk .
Closing the gaps
Ian Wood , Senior Director Technical Sales and Services UK / I at Veritas Technologies LLC
Managing data in a complex environment
Data growth has been ongoing for some time and should be seen as a good thing . But the rate of that data growth has exploded and that ’ s raising complexity within environments . In a multi-cloud environment , this growing data is stored in multiple locations which opens organisations up to greater risk . One observation is a rise in ransomware attacks which are more targeted and sophisticated than ever . Another key challenge for organisations is around data privacy regulations like GDPR – being confident that you can manage personal identifiable information wherever it may reside .
First , organisations need to standardise toolsets where possible . We see organisations adopting a set of tools and processes aligned to the cloud that they are adopting . The risk , however , is that if you deploy multiple clouds then you have multiple tools and multiple methodologies of managing those which then increases their complexity .
One key area I would recommend standardising is data management . Infrastructures come and go but data doesn ’ t change – it ’ s a constant . That reduces complexity and the possibility of overspend because you can check how that data is managed , reducing that risk of ransomware .
Finally , cost – the exponential growth in data could lead to exponential growth in the cost of data storage and management .
Digital Transformation – The disconnect between expectation and reality
As we mentioned , Digital transformation initiatives have accelerated at an unprecedented rate during the last year , but there are some gaps between expectation and reality . Organisations expect cost-savings by going to the cloud and digitally transforming . But the reality is , there ' s a huge risk of overspend , especially with data growth . Left unchecked , that can actually lead to unnecessary increased storage costs .
Enterprises also expect to be able to move faster , be more agile and reduce time to market through Digital Transformation and adoption of multi-cloud . But we ' ve seen a gap in the security posture and capabilities of organisations to secure that data , and a gap in the skills associated with these new environments .
Imagine a nightmare ransomware attack which goes into different infrastructures – some cloud , some data centres , etc . – where you have multiple technologies to recover . You can imagine the complexity that would bring , rather than having a standard methodology to go in and recover that data . Then , once you ' ve standardised , we ' d recommend looking at data management that includes a good level of insight . There are lots of opportunities to inject Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning straight into data management .
And if we have the opportunity to make more informed decisions with insights , then we ' re in a better place . After all , you can ’ t manage what you can ’ t see .
With data management , I always talk about insights first – it ’ s important to know where any personal information is that needs to be protected for data privacy regulations . On top of that , your data management needs to provide best practice protection . By following best practices , you can ensure you ’ re resilient against ransomware , for example .
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