Intelligent Tech Channels Issue 09 | Page 15

ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY Saving the day: backup and recovery With the risk of accidental deletion, data corruption, cybercriminal attacks and malicious users or administrators, protecting critical data has never been more important, and backing up both on-premises and in the cloud appears an attractive proposition . . . and the perfect opportunity for those in the channel to ride in and save the day. By Pippa Sanderson. T here are several challenges to properly protecting data and systems from physical disruption, along with backing up data in the cloud. According to Jeroen Schlosser, Managing Director, Equinix MENA: “Unplanned outages happen for reasons as routine as hardware failure and as extraordinary as floods and fires. Sometimes, datacentres do not have a backup power feed in case the electricity goes off, while others do not have enough fuel on-site to run backup generators. In addition, insufficient distance between a company’s disaster recovery sites can leave its entire operations vulnerable to a regional storm or outage.” Research indicates that the global cloud storage market is expected to grow from Ultimately, it’s all about helping customers with their digital transformation. Johnny Karam, Vice President Emerging Market, Veritas Johnny Karam, Vice President Emerging Market, Veritas. $18.87 billion in 2015 to $65.41 billion by 2020. Yet, although the market is heading in an upward trajectory, “Many enterprises today are hesitant to store their data assets in the public cloud and the reason is performance. Slow access to data once it is in a public cloud has also slowed down the adoption of enterprise cloud storage,” Schlosser says. So is a hybrid solution the answer? “Cloud computing brings unprecedented flexibility to enterprises. With the ability to focus on services and not hardware, IT can take advantage of abundant storage, flexible compute, server redundancy and SaaS applications to build an infrastructure that helps their companies achieve success. With a hybrid cloud approach, enterprises Ossama Eldeeb, Senior Manager, MENA Partner Organization, VMware. Middle East organisations are straining under the exponential growth in data. Ossama Eldeeb, Senior Manager, MENA Partner Organization, VMware 15