As we approach the new year, companies should be thinking about data storage and cyber-resiliency solutions that will grow with their company, provide immutable, unhackable data that does not require weeks of recovery, and avoid vendor lock-ins that will limit their ability to get remounted quickly and slow down the data recovery process.
Now more than ever, in the event of an outage or break-in, companies need the ability to recover their data right away instead of waiting weeks for a software company to restore it from a traditional tape. Not only that, but the data also needs to be the same as it was when it was backed up.
In an age where data is everything, companies must know what their most important data is, where it is located, and how to recover it quickly. With companies like InfoSystems and strategic partners like IBM Storage, data security is easier than ever.
Data recovery processes developed 30 years ago don’t work today.
In the past, having someone collect your data and put it underground for safe keeping was enough. That doesn’t work anymore. Banks, for example, generate millions of individual transactions a day, which translates to 1 exabyte of stored data, which is equal to about 275 billion mp3s. This is extremely sensitive data collected from credit and debit cards, call logs, support chats, web and email interactions and more. If that system suffers a vulnerability or outage, the data must be recovered immediately. Not in a few days, not in a few weeks. Right away.
In the event of a catastrophic event like this, real, actionable data is required. This is where immutable data comes in the picture. When you have immutable data, remounting can happen right away.
30 years ago, data was stored in servers. Today, companies have exabytes and terabytes of data and storing that data on servers no longer works. There is so much sprawl that storage software has become more complex and sophisticated, essentially becoming “aware” systems.
Data storage and cyber-resiliency has advanced far past the shoe-shining strategy of floppy disks, CDs, and other tools that were fed into systems to collect data. They were tangible but didn’t provide the insurance companies with exabytes of data require in order to stay functional.
Today and in the future, cyber-resiliency strategy is a living process.
Cyber-resiliency, snapshot scheduling, replication scheduling, and backup and recovery are living processes within companies of any size. These processes work like the human body. No heartbeat means total system failure. Take a huge shipping company like UPS, for example. There was a massive outage during the holiday season one year, which caused FedEx to get a 15% bump in usage. When a company is not used to a data influx of that size, it can bring them to their knees.
That bump to a system is when replication scheduling becomes a life raft. The data produced in Pittsburg must be replicated in real time in Denver.
With InfoSystems, planning and testing is nearly 80% of the data storage process. Heat mapping, or identifying where important data lives, is the only way to set up processes like replication and snapshot scheduling that allow for immutable data. If you don’t know what data is important and where it is, the risk of losing it to a cloud vendor who will charge you millions of dollars to get it back is higher than ever.
The problem with vendor lock-in.
2022 has been all about the Cloud; storing data in servers that run over the internet rather than on a company’s internal systems, or if you’re an individual, your personal device. Google Drive, Apple iCloud, Yahoo, Dropbox, and Microsoft OneDrive are all examples of Cloud storage.
So, what’s the problem with this system when it comes to cyber-resilience?
The data a company stores in the Cloud may not belong to them – it belongs to the Cloud vendor. That’s where the circular, living process of cyber-resiliency comes back in. When you go through a company like InfoSystems who identifies what data is important and where it is located, you aren’t giving away all the family jewels, and, equally importantly, you know what the family jewels are in the first place.
Yes, the Cloud has its place and should be taken advantage of. At InfoSystems and with IBM storage, we understand the importance of a Cloud storage system, but don’t give away all your information to a vendor who will charge you millions of dollars to get it back. The consequences? If you decide to run a marketing campaign based on your own user information like purchase item and date, you can’t query it and the most important information about user habits is not accessible.
InfoSystems’ Approach to Cyber-Resiliency, Snapshot Scheduling, and Backup and Recovery.
There is a lot of risk and a lot at stake with data storage, especially when third parties are brought into the picture or companies use a data system that might not allow them to own their own data. It opens the door for data loss, unauthorized access, and long-term preservation issues.
InfoSystems understands the insecurity that comes with business technology and cyber-resiliency. Dealing with dozens of IT, Cloud, and software vendors can be stressful, and if you’re not familiar with the technology space, you run the risk of getting locked in with a vendor who won’t tell you the truth about how difficult it will be to get access to your data when you need it the most.
At InfoSystems, the planning and testing process is so important to us because we’ve been around to see what life is like without it. After nearly 30 years of computer networking experience, we continue to grow and expand our expertise and services to make life easier for our customers. We have your best interest in mind and don’t withhold the truth.
With today’s requirements surrounding data storage and cyber-resiliency, there’s no room for mistrust or dishonesty. InfoSystems, alongside partners like IBM, help you know your own process, solve long-term and short-term problems simultaneously, get better return-on-investment through your data centers, and above all else, will listen to you about your concerns and craft solutions based on your specific problems.
Ready to start protecting your data?
