Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 92 | Page 20

TRENDING
Graham Brown , Regional Director of South Africa and SADC , Commvault
AI-driven data protection offers continuous innovation to meet modern organisations ’ evolving needs . Whether in the cloud or on-premises , adapting to this evolving landscape is essential . Envision a future where you can automate tasks , analyse data in real-time , achieve more with fewer resources , make informed decisions , receive precise security alerts , and utilise data insights for efficient customer and employee support .
These capabilities will soon become standard . Your data protection is the gateway to affordable AI adoption , offering endless possibilities .
When considering DPaaS , enterprises prioritise security while assessing Total Cost of Ownership , TCO . However , evaluating TCO can be challenging due to its quantitative nature and potential vendor bias .
To navigate this effectively , consider key factors : hours and even minutes . The latest attacks could encrypt almost 18 terabytes of data a day , which is roughly equivalent to 3.3 million files . If you apply that to dwell time of seven to nine days that could mean over 160 terabytes of data , an entire company ’ s worth of data .
It is no longer enough to simply build thicker and taller walls in the hopes that these will prevent breaches and fall back on the ability to recover if a breach does occur . Data protection must advance beyond perimeter defences and backups , because once the damage has been done , it is often already too late .
It has become essential to develop proactive capabilities for data protection and improve how businesses respond to cyber events to minimise the blast radius of an attack and accelerate responses to minimise the damage caused .
• Deduplication and data tiering : Maximise storage efficiency and control cloud expenses .
• Cloud-native storage : Collaborate with DPaaS providers for reduced storage costs alongside your cloud service .
• Proactive Ransomware Monitoring and Alerting : Ensure end-to-end data encryption and immutability for data security .
• Multi-Cloud Data Protection : Choose DPaaS solutions aligned with diverse cloud needs .
• Support for various workloads : Your DPaaS solution should accommodate a mix of SaaS , IaaS , and onpremises resources .
• Robust reporting : Include compliance analytics to ensure adherence and future readiness .
• Meeting this criteria facilitates cost-effective data protection , enabling you to plan and reinvest your savings wisely .
Data management
Managing data has become increasingly difficult and protecting it has never been more important . This is often a challenge , however . With data being both moved to the cloud and repatriated as consolidation events happen , multiple clouds becoming the norm , and data moving closer to the edge and into containers , the landscape is complex , and it complicates data protection .
Data itself has become the target and is often exfiltrated before many organisations even know they have been breached . It can then be sold , used for extortion or other malicious purposes , and the damage to reputation has already happened .
The reality is that the reconnaissance phase has shortened from weeks or months to a matter of
Data exfiltration is also becoming increasingly prevalent and has the potential to be more damaging than ransomware . Risk analysis of both live and backup data has become essential for helping businesses gain insights into sensitive data across the organisation to drive action and reduce risk associated with obsolete , redundant , or trivial data .
Aside from minimising the threat , data security needs to include additional capabilities to defend your data from threats , speed up recovery , and provide better visibility into your security posture . This includes tight integration with security tools and hyperscalers , which is crucial for overall data visibility , and a single solution that will remove the complexity of a web of native data protection tools and platforms .
This ensures consolidated views of backup operations so organisations are ready when disaster strikes , can identify potential problems quickly , spot long-term trends and obtain increased visibility into the data risks .
Organisations must adopt next-generation data protection solutions with built-in protocols , early warning detection , and monitoring . Essential components include risk analysis , compliance with regulations , and secure credential management . However , data protection is only one part of a comprehensive security strategy .
Customers must also secure other layers , such as network security , endpoint security , and identity and access management . Regular updates , vulnerability assessments , and employee education on security best practices are crucial . A holistic approach to security minimises the risk of breaches and ensures robust data protection . p
20 INTELLIGENTCIO AFRICA www . intelligentcio . com