By understanding each of the risk areas and employing a layered security approach to address them, you can defend your business.
While mobility in the corporate world is enabling innovation and speed, it is also exposing a number of troubling security risks that represent back door opportunities for Security threats and risks.
Focus of IT security has been on the network and the data traveling over it. The security of stored data, especially backup data, has received less attention. But is this complacency justified? What are the security threats associated with data that’s stored off-site?
What is a Service Desk ? How a Service Desk fits into your IT Requirements and demands? Why Service Desk and how will it benefit your company the most?
A Service Desk, understands that information offers companies strategic advantages and it ensures proper mechanisms are in place for the data to be analyzed, produced and distributed seamlessly. The best Service Desks manage information delivery by utilizing Information IT infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practices to deliver these services. The Service Desk is the first contact in an organization for any and all IT requirements.
In the present day scenario, as many people continue to make the same mistakes with their network security time and again, and we seldom learn lessons despite our experience.
In the present days, most malicious users do not possess a high level of programming skills and instead make use of tools available on the Internet. There are several stages that an attacker has to pass through to successfully carry out an attack and that is not that easy and having said that,
Anything from software, music and movies to books, games, etc. are stolen and copied because security is breached by malicious individuals.
Because hacker tools have become more and more sophisticated, super-intelligence is no longer a requirement to hack someone’s computer or server.
How valid and vital is your data? What steps and precautions have you put in place and how to peacefully lead your life?
Preventing unauthorized people from accessing your stored data and preventing accidental or intentional destruction, infection or corruption of information is the key and that is security. While data encryption the recent phenomenon, it is just one of many techniques and technologies that can be used to implement a tiered data-security strategy. Steps to secure data involve understanding applicable threats, aligning appropriate layers of defense and continual monitoring of activity logs taking action as needed.
For any organization’s information technology, infrastructure management (IM) is the management of essential operation components, such as policies, processes, equipment, data, human resources, and external contacts, for overall effectiveness.
Infrastructure management is sometimes divided into categories of systems management, network management, and storage management. Infrastructure management products include a number of vendors like Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Microsoft, Cisco, Avaya, Symantec, Nortel, etc.,
While cloud storage refers to saving data to an off-site storage system maintained by a third party. Instead of storing information to your computer’s hard drive or other local storage device, you save it to a remote database. The vital link between your system and the data is the internet.
Cloud storage has several advantages over traditional data storage. For example, if you store your data on a cloud, you’ll be able to get to that data from any location through Internet access. You don’t need to carry around a physical storage device or laptops or use the same computer to save and retrieve your information. With the tools and applications, you could even allow other people to access the data.
The right integration of technologies empowers business, demanding that the IT organization serve as a significant contributor to success. A cost-effective, scalable, and manageable data center infrastructure is the first step in advancing business goals through IT capabilities.
The reference architecture will include hardware and software components which have been selected, tested and tuned by the vendors instead of by the IT staff. This is a good thing for frazzled IT folks who have their hands full just keeping legacy applications running.
The cloud is empowering entrepreneurs and executives to take the reins and control how and when they consume data. Rather than buying hardware or full suites of products that will likely go unused, we get to pick and choose the processes that work for us. The number of providers, software publishers, and deployment options out there can be overwhelming. But having a basic understanding of the different types of cloud models available will enable you to ask the right questions and make the right choice for your business.
It was sometime last week I had been to a entrepreneur who was once a software developer and now hired two techie’s & restarted his vision to develop application for Android & IOS. He had once application ready and called us to handle the backend operations for storage and data management.
If you had lived in the age of 386, 486, AT, XT, dotmatrix, windows 3.1, floppy drives, you will know and appreciate how change has been consistent and rapid. Today is the age of transformation and what we see today will cease to exists in the next 5 years. Onsite backups were long seen as the only viable solution for securing and protecting data due to both the time needed to complete full backups as well as bandwidth limitations, in addition to the complications that would often arise with backing up full copies of large data sets, while tape devices were more often than not the only medium available to store them.
By understanding each of the risk areas and employing a layered security approach to address them, you can defend your business.
While mobility in the corporate world is enabling innovation and speed, it is also exposing a number of troubling security risks that represent back door opportunities for Security threats and risks.
1. ATM Connectivity conjunctions
Because they are hyper-connected, mobile devices often access unsecured networks, increasing the risk of data loss. WiFi hotspots have inadequate security. To counter these risks, ensure connectivity via certificate-based network access, and utilize per-app VPNs that encrypt data in transit. In addition, we need to deploy apps and email proxies that block unauthorized or non-compliant devices and apps to gain access.
2. Diverse Conditions
Far from traditional endpoints, smart phones represent a motley collection of devices and operating systems. To make matters worse, employees often use multiple devices, which may or may not be owned by the company. Crucial security measures to manage these challenges include applying consistent policies across mobile operating systems and educating employees with manuals on how to separate personal and corporate data.
3. Lost Devices
Small and portable devices are vulnerable to loss and theft. To protect lost or stolen devices, enforce password policies for devices and apps using multi-factor authentication. Provide seamless access to corporate apps and resources with certificates and single sign-on. Encrypt corporate apps and data so they’re protected even if the device is compromised. Finally, employ full or selective device wipe.
4. Ownership Apps
Employees exposed to personal apps, like file transfer, file sync and sharing tools, for work purposes, increasing the risk of data loss and potential breaches. To protect our business from these risky apps, begin by providing a cardinal enterprise app store that offers easy access to approved in-house and third-party apps. In addition, deploy and manage user apps dependent on role, and implement app-level security policies for DLP, encryption, and authentication.
5. DLPP – Data Leak Protection Policies
With ever-greater numbers of workers relying on mobile apps for work and personal use, IT professionals are alarmed. To allay these risks, implement mobile DLP policies like blocking copy and paste actions. Manage “open in” controls to prevent content from being accessed by unapproved apps, and control whether data is allowed to be stored locally or on a external storage cards.
6. Communicably Intended Infectious Apps (CIAA)
Apps are fun, helpful—and the weakest point of entry for determined cyber-criminals. All too often, they are installed by users with little or no thought to the dangers they may pose. To guard against these outcomes and ensure devices are protected, implement centrally managed mobile threat protection that can proactively detect and block mobile threats such as malware and risky apps. IT can white- or black-list apps based on app behavior, and prevent access to enterprise apps and services if malware is detected
7. Exposed Smart Phones
Users can tamper with (jailbreak or root) a device’s operating system to gain elevated privileges and install malicious apps from unauthorized app stores. To counter this threat, we must continuously monitor device compliance, and identify and block compromised devices from accessing enterprise networks and apps.
Focus of IT security has been on the network and the data traveling over it. The security of stored data, especially backup data, has received less attention. But is this complacency justified? What are the security threats associated with data that’s stored off-site?
Why to secure your Data?
Most of the data in the present day is only in the electronic form, and Corporates are no exception. Much of this information is about the business itself, some is personal information about employees, clients and associates, and some is more general information obtained through research. Some of it may even be classified information that impacts national security and some of them could be regulatory requirements too. While protecting the data’s integrity and confidentiality is always desirable, in many cases today it is mandatory, and failure to comply may subject the company to fines, other charges or even criminal charges.
Why, then, do companies fail to properly secure data? Sometimes those in charge do not realize that the data is vulnerable. Other times, the cost of protecting the data encourages them to take chances. Not all data is equally sensitive. It is important to assess and classify data according to its sensitivity and protect it accordingly. Strong security is warranted for certain types of data.
Classifying and Coding Data
Assessing risk requires that you identify what you need to protect the data from. What are the most likely threats to the data? How likely is each to occur?
Examples of threats include:
Deliberate unauthorized access from outside the network
Deliberate unauthorized access from inside the network
Accidental modification, destruction or disclosure of data by users with authorized access
Malicious tampering or destruction of data (from internal or external sources)
Theft or loss of the physical media (tapes, drives, servers, other storage devices)
Loss of data due to hardware/software failure, physical destruction of the media (natural disaster, fire, etc.)
Impact refers to the cost to the company – not only direct monetary cost but lost employee productivity, administrative overhead, customer goodwill and business reputation, etc. – that would be likely to be incurred if the data’s security were breached. Probability refers to the likelihood that a breach will occur.
Technology to save & protect data
Government and industry rules generally do not mandate that a particular technology be used to protect data; this makes sense because technology is always changing and bureaucracies often operate slowly and would not be able to keep up with those changes. Instead, laws and regulations tend to mandate desired outcomes: e.g. protection of customers’ personal information from disclosure to third parties. The technology that you use to accomplish this is up to you.
Stored data requires different protection technologies from data that is in transit across a network. Technologies used to protect stored data can be divided into several categories:
· Access control technologies
· Data encryption technologies
· Auditing/monitoring technologies
· Secure data destruction technologies
· Backup and disaster recovery technologies
Protection technologies can be physical (e.g., locks on the server room doors to prevent physical removal or destruction of data), hardware based, or software based. Software based protection technologies can be built into the operating system (e.g., Windows Server ACLs, EFS encryption, BitLocker, etc.) or provided through third party solutions.
Housekeeping Tips for DATA
To be effective, protection must be multi-layered. You need to prevent outside intruders from penetrating the network. But if those protections fail, or if the breach comes from insiders, you need measures in place to prevent them from accessing the data.
General network security best practices should be followed. In addition, some best practices specific to stored data include:
· Isolate different types of traffic and systems: use VLANs or Fiber Channel zoning to create a separation between storage traffic and other network traffic
· Physically separate storage devices from the other server hardware (i.e., place the storage devices in a separate room, with physical access limited to trusted personnel
· Physically restrict access to the fiber patch panels and switches
· Physically secure in place hot-swappable drives~
· Use intrusion detection systems and/or file access auditing/monitoring to alert you to unauthorized or unusual attempts to access data
· Back up data on a regular schedule, store backups off site and ensure that backup media is physically secured
· Encrypt data (including backups) and store encryption keys separately from the data
What is a Service Desk ? How a Service Desk fits into your IT Requirements and demands? Why Service Desk and how will it benefit your company the most?
A Service Desk, understands that information offers companies strategic advantages and it ensures proper mechanisms are in place for the data to be analyzed, produced and distributed seamlessly. The best Service Desks manage information delivery by utilizing Information IT infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practices to deliver these services. The Service Desk is the first contact in an organization for any and all IT requirements.
According to ITIL, the definition of a Service Desk is – A the single point of contact between users and IT Service Management. Tasks include handling incidents and requests, and providing an interface for other ITIL processes. The primary functions of the Service Desk are incident control, life cycle management of all service requests, and communicating with the customer.
Service Desk is a center that provides a Single Point of Contact between a company’s customers, employees and business partners. The Service Desk is designed to optimize services on behalf of the business and oversee, manage IT functions. A Service Desk does more than making sure IT services are being delivered at that moment, it manages the various lifecycles of software packages used to provide critical information flow by utilizing ITIL best practices.
These best practices enable an IT service provider to ensure end user data is being delivered consistently under many different scenarios. Since the Service Desk is a Single Point of Contact it understands that there are many reasons for which services can be interrupted.
A Service Desk has the means within its hierarchy to monitor and manage each layer of service from beginning to end. These layers are classified by:
Network Operations: The ability to monitor all network devices and connections remotely. A Service Desk manages and monitors incident reports, traffic, performs network reviews, implements backups and manages change on the network. Thus, a Service Desk ensures the infrastructure of the network is optimized to meet the business needs of the enterprise.
Systems Operations: The ability to perform core systems management tasks. Core systems management includes performance monitoring, installation of patches, change management, account management and support for specific platforms, Linux, Unix, etc.
Database Operations: The ability to maintain and optimize database tasks. Performance monitoring, fault monitoring, log reviews, access management, and change control for database software such at Oracle, DB2, etc.
Security Management: The ability to protect the enterprise from external/internal threats. A Service Desk will perform vulnerability scans, monitor IPS logs and map this data to the information security related regulatory mandates.
All of the functions above are delivered by utilizing various types of hardware, software and delivery process. All of these functions have to work together in a seamless manner and each has its own lifecycle and the Service Desk will manage them. Thus, when one hardware platform, software package or process needs to be replaced with newer technology or practices, the Service Desk will manage the transitions ensuring maximum data delivery.
By performing the tasks outlined above, a Service Desk improves user satisfaction by:
· Minimizing business impacts of service failures
· Proactively managing use of the IT network of ITIL best practices
· Resolving incidents and requests with minimal delay
· Communicating with the end user
As companies switch their IT service management from technology based to process based, that they are able to integrate their IT needs directly into the corporates overall strategic plan. The Service Desk plays a strategic role in this transition. The Service Desk allows companies to be less dependent on specific technology and enables them to easily connect with business partners moving forward by focusing on processes. By switching the IT focus on processes the infrastructure delivers value add to the corporate users and customers. Once the services and processes are defined, the Service Desk monitors them and the company focuses on it’s strategic and tactical business plan.
A good Service Desk improves a company’s customer satisfaction by allowing the company to implement their business plan. A good Service Desk improves a company’s satisfaction by managing IT costs while managing the lifecycles of the IT processes and by utilizing ITIL best practices. A good Service Desk communicates effectively and efficiently with each end user. There are many more things a good Service Desk does well; it is the next step in allowing your company to focus specifically on your business plan.
In the present day scenario, as many people continue to make the same mistakes with their network security time and again, and we seldom learn lessons despite our experience.
1. Weak Network Access Passwords
Most network system in order to correct this network security password vulnerability, they have implemented “CAPTCHA Technology.” A common type of CAPTCHA requires the user to type letters or digits from a distorted image that appears on screen, which is commonly used to prevent unwanted internet robots from accessing websites and networks. This technology has given network security administrators a false sense of security, in regard to countering brute forcing.
The solution? A complex password. In order to create a complex password, you need seven or more characters combined with at least three numbers and one special character (capital letters, @ or # signs, etc.). Network security administrators should require the creation of complex passwords as well as implement a password expiration system to help remind users to change their passwords often. A restriction on how soon a password can be reused is also another handy precaution, that way someone isn’t cycling between two different passwords every month or so.
2. Outdated Server Application or Software
Companies constantly release patches in order to ensure that your system is not vulnerable to new public threats. Hackers consistently release new threats and exploits which could allow harm to befall your network if these patches are not in place. A simple solution is to ensure your system administrator is regularly informed of new threats and is updating your applications on a monthly basis.
3. Web Cookies
Although cookies do not carry viruses and cannot install malware on the host computer, the tracking of cookies and third-party tracking cookies are commonly used ways to compile records of browsing histories. Unencrypted cookies are a major network security issue because they can open your system to Cross Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability and that is a major privacy concern. With ‘Open Cookies’ anyone could have access to any login data cookies (saved password sessions) on the network, which creates a major vulnerability on your network security system.
The solution is to ensure your entire network cookies are encrypted and have an encoded expiration time. Your network administrator should also force users to re-login any time they are accessing sensitive directories in your network.
4. Plain Hashes
Hashing is used to index and retrieve items in a database and Plain Hashes are also used in many encryption algorithms. Basically, an attacker wouldn’t be able to use a pre-computed look up table to assist in exploiting your network, which adds a whole new level of complexity to your network security system. So even if an attacker gains access and compromises your database, it will still be very difficult for the attacker to retrieve the information.
The best way to ensure safety in regard to Hashes is for your network administrator to hide encryption key, because if the hacker is able to gain access to your encryption they can access your network system.
5. Share Hosting
If you have a website with access to your internal network, Shared Hosting is not the way to go! A shared web hosting service is where many websites reside on one web server connected to the Internet. Each site sits on its own partition, or section or space on the server, to keep it separate from other sites. This is generally the most economical option for hosting, because people share the overall cost of server maintenance. When an attacker is inside one area of the shared server, it’s almost as if they have a skeleton key that fits all of the locks. The best solution is to have dedicated Server Hosting and/or Secure Cloud Hosting.
In the present days, most malicious users do not possess a high level of programming skills and instead make use of tools available on the Internet. There are several stages that an attacker has to pass through to successfully carry out an attack and that is not that easy and having said that,
Anything from software, music and movies to books, games, etc. are stolen and copied because security is breached by malicious individuals.
Because hacker tools have become more and more sophisticated, super-intelligence is no longer a requirement to hack someone’s computer or server. Of course, there are individuals that have developed sophisticated skills and know how to breach into a user’s privacy in several ways, but these types of individuals are less common than in the past.
As the internet evolves and computer networks become bigger and bigger, network security has become one of the most important factors for companies to consider.
Piracy is a big concern to enterprises that are victims of its effects.
What causes Security ?
If someone can gain enough information and holds the necessary computing skills, they can compromise a company’s network security with ease. Because network security is mitigated by humans, it is also often susceptible to human failures and mistakes. Anything from misconfigured equipment or services to unsecured usernames and passwords can pose a real threat to network security. Some default security lapses of OS, network devices or TCP/IP protocols can be conveniently used by hackers to gain access to network resources.
There are known attacks in which protocol’s weaknesses are exploited by attackers. Some of these protocols include SNMP, SMTP, HTTP, FTP or ICMP. It is important to update device’s firmware, install the latest OS security updates and change the default settings. Every company should implement a security policy where potential vulnerabilities are addressed and treated.
Network attacks are often caused by direct or indirect interaction of humans. There are many situations in which employees themselves pose the biggest threat to enterprises. Many times, employees will unintentionally install piracy software that is infected with viruses, worms or Trojans. Common types are that the users may forget to secure their workstations, leaving them open as an easy target to potential attackers. And yet others may give sensitive information to outsiders.
This is why a security policy should include internal and external threats. By gaining physical access to network devices, a user can extract important information from the company’s servers or storage devices. Such attacks depend on the hacker’s skills because without the proper tools, the access is vulnerable. External attackers gain access to network resources through the internet, which the most common way network security can be compromised.
Types of Attacks
Structured – attacks made by individuals who possess advanced computing skills. Such hackers are experts in exploiting system vulnerabilities. By gaining enough information about a company’s network, these individuals can create custom hacking tools to breach network security.
Unstructured – attacks made by unskilled hackers. Individuals behind these attacks use hacking tools available on the Internet and are often not aware of the environment they are attacking. These threats should not be neglected because they can expose precious information to malicious users.
Social engineering – another type of network attack. Malicious users take advantage of human’s credibility and often gain important information directly from their victims. They often call or send fraudulent emails to their victims pretending to be some other person entirely.
Phishing is a method that is pretty easy to implement by hackers. Entire sites are known to be duplicated by hackers in an attempt to steal precious information from users.
Eavesdropping – A malicious user can gain critical information from “listening” to network traffic. Because most communications are sent unencrypted, there are many cases in which traffic is susceptible to interception. The traffic can be analyzed using sniffing tools to read information as it is sent into the network. Wireless networks are more susceptible to interception than wired ones. Eavesdropping can be prevented by using encryption algorithms.
Denial of Service and Distributed Denial of Service attacks –Servers are often targeted and flooded with data until they become unreachable. Core network equipment can be blocked and thus prevent normal traffic from flowing into the network. Distributed denial of service attacks are more dangerous because attacks are made from multiple sources.
Password attacks –They are one of the most feared network attacks because once a user is compromised, the whole network can be damaged, especially if we are talking about a domain user or network administrator.
Compromised-Key attack – by obtaining the private key of a sender, an attacker can decipher secured network traffic. This kind of attack is often hard to be carried out successfully because it requires good computing resources and skills.
Man-in-the-Middle attack –this attack is based on intercepting and modifying information between two transmitting nodes. A hacker can modify network routes to redirect traffic to its machine before it is carried out to the destination.
IP address spoofing – in this scenario hackers use spoofed IPs to impersonate a legitimate machine. The attacker can then modify packets making them look like legitimate traffic to the receiving network device.
Exploit attacks – these are usually made by individuals who possess strong computing skills and can take advantage of software bugs or configuration issues. By having enough information of a specific software, hackers can “exploit” a particular problem and use it to gain access to private data.
Application-layer attacks – these attacks are based on cracking applications that run on servers or workstations. These types of attacks are common because there are many different applications that run on machines and are susceptible to attacks. Hackers use viruses, Trojans and worms to infect devices and gain important information.
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How valid and vital is your data? What steps and precautions have you put in place and how to peacefully lead your life?
Preventing unauthorized people from accessing your stored data and preventing accidental or intentional destruction, infection or corruption of information is the key and that is security. While data encryption the recent phenomenon, it is just one of many techniques and technologies that can be used to implement a tiered data-security strategy. Steps to secure data involve understanding applicable threats, aligning appropriate layers of defense and continual monitoring of activity logs taking action as needed.
Data movement is required for authorized general access, business continuance (BC) and disaster recovery (DR), general data protection as well as archiving for data preservation and compliance. In no particular order, here are 10 items to consider as part of securing your stored data:
Implement a tiered data protection and security model including multiple layers of defense to counter applicable threats. Multiple layers of defense can isolate and protect data should one of the defense perimeters be compromised from internal or external threats.
Include both logical (authorization, authentication, encryption and passwords) and physical (restricted access and locks on server, storage and networking cabinets) security. Physical security includes maintaining a low profile.
Speaking of physical security and access controls, change your key-code or door-lock combinations regularly, informing only those who need access. You might be surprised who stops by to ask for the access for the combination or password for something that you did know that they had access to in the first place.
Logical security includes securing your networks with firewalls, running anti-spyware and virus-detection programs on servers and network-addressed storage systems. No storage security strategy would be complete without making sure that applications, databases, file systems and server operating systems are secure to prevent unauthorized or disruptive access to your stored data. Implement storage system based volume or logical unit number mapping and masking as a last line of defense for your stored data.
Some storage and networking tools will encourage you to change management passwords at initial installation. Likewise, restrict access to management tools to those who need it.
If you are currently moving data electronically to avoid losing tapes or are planning to, then make sure data being transmitted over a public or private network is safe and secure. Some techniques to protect data while in-flight include encryption, virtual private networks and the IPSec protocol.
Understand who has physical access to fixed and removable data-storage media and devices. Leverage access logs as well as perform background checks of contractor and third-party personnel who will be handling your data and media. Identify where weak links are in your data-movement processes and correct those deficiencies. Data-discovery tools can be used to identify sensitive data that may not be adequately protected.
Data encryption is a topic people in the industry like to talk about, however, like other technologies; wide-scale mass adoption has been elusive. Also, consider how key management will be performed for your environment. In addition, consider the potential effect on performance and inter-operatebility for your environment when looking at data-encryption technologies.
Avoid letting data security become a bottleneck to productivity, because that is a sure way to compromise a security initiative. The more transparent the security is to those who are authorized to use the data, the less likely those users will try to circumvent your efforts.
Do you know if your data is safe, and do you know where your data is? See that backups and archives are secure, including the process of performing backups and recovery, along with where and how the data is stored.
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For any organization’s information technology, infrastructure management (IM) is the management of essential operation components, such as policies, processes, equipment, data, human resources, and external contacts, for overall effectiveness.
Infrastructure management is sometimes divided into categories of systems management, network management, and storage management. Infrastructure management products include a number of vendors like Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Microsoft, Cisco, Avaya, Symantec, Nortel, etc.,
Among other purposes, infrastructure management seeks to:
Reduce duplication of effort
Ensure adherence to standards
Enhance the flow of information throughout an information system
Promote adaptability necessary for a changeable environment
Ensure interoperability among organizational and external entities
Maintain effective change management policies and practices.
Although all business activities depend upon the infrastructure, planning and projects to ensure its effective management are typically undervalued to the detriment of the organization. According to IDC, a prominent research firm (cited in an article in DMReview), investments in infrastructure management have the largest single impact on an organization’s revenue.
While cloud storage refers to saving data to an off-site storage system maintained by a third party. Instead of storing information to your computer’s hard drive or other local storage device, you save it to a remote database. The vital link between your system and the data is the internet.
Cloud storage has several advantages over traditional data storage. For example, if you store your data on a cloud, you’ll be able to get to that data from any location through Internet access. You don’t need to carry around a physical storage device or laptops or use the same computer to save and retrieve your information. With the tools and applications, you could even allow other people to access the data.
Cloud storage systems are represented by hundreds of data servers. Because our physical systems are prone maintenance or repair, it’s important to store the information on multiple machines. A cloud storage system could ensure clients that they could access their information at any given time. Most systems store the same data on servers that use different power source. This means, the clients can access their data even if one power source fails.
Not all cloud storage clients are worried about running out of storage space. They use cloud storage as a way to create backups of data. If something happens to the client’s computer system, the data survives off-site.
There are hundreds of different cloud storage systems. Some have a very specific focus, such as storing Web e-mail messages or digital pictures. Others are available to store all forms of digital data. Some cloud storage systems are small operations, while others are so large that the physical equipment can fill up an entire warehouse.
At its most basic level, a cloud storage system needs just one data server connected to the Internet. There are hundreds of cloud storage providers on the Web, and their numbers seem to increase every day. Not only are there a lot of companies competing to provide storage, but also the amount of storage each company offers to clients seems to grow regularly.
The two biggest concerns about cloud storage are reliability and security. Clients aren’t likely to entrust their data to another company without a guarantee that they’ll be able to access their information whenever they want and no one else will be able to get at it.
To secure data,
Encryption, which means they use a complex algorithm to encode information. To decode the encrypted files, a user needs the encryption key. While it’s possible to crack encrypted information, most hackers don’t have access to the amount of computer processing power they would need to decrypt information.
Authentication processes, which require in creating a user name and password.
Authorization practices — the client lists the people who are authorized to access information stored on the cloud system. Many corporations have multiple levels of authorization.
Even with these protective measures in place, many people worry that data saved on a remote storage system is vulnerable. There’s always the possibility that a hacker will find an electronic back door and access data. Hackers could also attempt to steal the physical machines on which data are stored. A disgruntled employee could alter or destroy data using his or her authenticated user name and password. Cloud storage companies invest a lot of money in security measures in order to limit the possibility of data theft or corruption.
The other big concern, reliability, is just as important as security. An unstable cloud storage system is a liability. No one wants to save data to a failure-prone system, nor do they want to trust a company that isn’t financially stable. While most cloud storage systems try to address this concern through redundancy techniques, there’s still the possibility that an entire system could crash and leave clients with no way to access their saved data.
Cloud storage companies live and die by their reputations. It’s in each company’s best interests to provide the most secure and reliable service possible. If a company can’t meet these basic client expectations, it doesn’t have much of a chance — there are too many other options available on the market.
SPS Murrali, Founder & CEO, Carama Technologies
The right integration of technologies empowers business, demanding that the IT organization serve as a significant contributor to success. A cost-effective, scalable, and manageable data center infrastructure is the first step in advancing business goals through IT capabilities.
The reference architecture will include hardware and software components which have been selected, tested and tuned by the vendors instead of by the IT staff. This is a good thing for frazzled IT folks who have their hands full just keeping legacy applications running. Since the hard work of designing solutions and implementing and tuning components has already been done, IT teams can focus on providing better services rather than getting sucked in to more mundane tasks such as assuring a particular application server is implemented properly.
A major shift is underway in data center infrastructure procurement and design. This trend is part of a more modular data center design approach based on vendor tested and certified reference architectures. These modular building blocks are typically all inclusive of the hardware and software components and customizations required to run the applications, and they form the foundation of consolidated private clouds.
In today’s IT and business environment, it is becoming more commonplace to see longer IT life spans. Thus, a thorough evaluation of support and maintenance agreements can produce significant business results and provide additional competitive advantages by reducing risk, lowering costs, and enhancing response times that improve internal service-level agreements. The asset lifecycle approach means shifting the paradigm of making support and maintenance decisions based on either one- or two dimensions to a multidimensional decision model that weighs many factors including risks, costs, availability, priorities, efficiency, and business impact. Taking this approach and developing a risk-reward profile for your IT assets is an effective strategy that can make a meaningful impact to your company’s bottom line.
Achieve the optimal mix of capital, operating costs, timing, risk, and resources. The pace of change, integration of disparate technologies, and rising pressure for cost reductions are shifting the focus of IT departments to enterprise-wide integration of systems – streamlining operations to increase business performance. To meet the increasing demands of the enterprise, a comprehensive, consistent methodology for infrastructure design and implementation is essential.
The right integration of technologies empowers business, demanding that the IT organization serve as a significant contributor to success. A cost-effective, scalable, and manageable data center infrastructure is the first step in advancing business goals through IT capabilities.
The cloud is empowering entrepreneurs and executives to take the reins and control how and when they consume data. Rather than buying hardware or full suites of products that will likely go unused, we get to pick and choose the processes that work for us. The number of providers, software publishers, and deployment options out there can be overwhelming. But having a basic understanding of the different types of cloud models available will enable you to ask the right questions and make the right choice for your business.
The Public Cloud:
In a public cloud, you share the business application software, hardware, data center, and operating system with all of the other users.
The Private Cloud:
The public cloud model has many business benefits, but one downside is potential security and performance risks. In a private cloud, the only shared component is the provider’s infrastructure. A company’s business applications and database are stored on its own virtual layer, essentially creating a protective bubble around your data. The virtual layer is software that allows the application to use shared hardware and still remain protected.
The Hybrid Model:
There is a lot of debate over public versus private cloud providers, and for every advantage the one offers, there is a counterpoint. The public and private clouds need to coexist in a hybrid model.
What questions should an organization ask to evaluate a potential cloud provider?
1. How does the provider secure my data and who has access to it?
2. How reliable is the service, what service levels are available for my cloud and do you have disaster recovery services?
3. Are there any restrictions (workloads, OS, platforms, access) as to what I can run in my cloud? and/or what features does your cloud provide over the competition?
4. How long have you been providing cloud services?
5. Where your cloud data are centers — or where can I access “my cloud” should you be my cloud provider — and what languages do you support?
6. Do you have any references in my industry?
7. How can you assist me in moving/migrating my workloads to the cloud?
8. How can you work with me to make my cloud experience successful?
9. How do I measure, monitor and manage how my cloud’s performance?
10. What is the process for moving my workloads and data from your cloud back to my data center should I decide to refocus my cloud workloads?
11. How much does it cost per month and how do you charge for your services?
12. Whom do I call should I have problems?
Just ignore your apprehensions, hearsay and sail out to look for yourself and sign up with conviction and well informed.
All through our discussion his only apprehension was on the security of the data. He wanted to understand how he can protect the third party data from intruders and how to instill confidence in his clients about the safety of their data stored in a third party location. He had tried a $5 account from one of the data center for all his trial and testing of his application. He had no idea or clue on the credentials of that service provider and all that he did was googled and found out a service provider who scored over on the price and he instantly signed up with them. Which I suppose, most of the people will use the same metrics while signing up the service provider, for they have no clue or idea about the service provider and the process that goes in to storing the data.
Have you ever attempted to understand the environment that you choose to keep your most vital data? How it is stored ? Do they provide a contract? Is your data is in safe zone? Have you inquired where is their data centre? Do they have a proper back up plan or a disaster recovery plan? What happens if all your data is lost?
Does this look elementary or you being taken for granted? Well, in my little understanding of the market, I guess that customers have absolutely no idea to the solution and yet they stay tuned & continue to remain uninformed and feel happy about it.. IGNORANCE IS A BLISS.
If you had lived in the age of 386, 486, AT, XT, dotmatrix, windows 3.1, floppy drives, you will know and appreciate how change has been consistent and rapid. Today is the age of transformation and what we see today will cease to exists in the next 5 years. Onsite backups were long seen as the only viable solution for securing and protecting data due to both the time needed to complete full backups as well as bandwidth limitations, in addition to the complications that would often arise with backing up full copies of large data sets, while tape devices were more often than not the only medium available to store them. Backing up data to tape, while often the most cost effective method of data protection at the time, brought with it many challenges to the user. Tape backup devices often provided no guarantee in terms of the consistency of the data, while proving time consuming for IT engineers due to the manual processes required to run a backup, all while offering minimal, if any security.
Backup technology has grown in leaps and bounds from the often used tape devices and unreliable external hard drives that were most often used to secure and protect business critical data. Many technologies have been developed to backup data to disk. Many of these products provide backup technologies that are pre-configured onto specifically developed devices while other technologies provide software that work on a variety of hardware or backup devices. A distinct advantage of these technologies is their ability to both automatically perform backups at specific times, while the daily backups are run incidentally, backing up only the changes to the initial full backup that was performed, and while this method of backup is available in many tape backup technologies, the restoration of data would often prove to be a time and resource intensive operation.
The ever growing popularity of cloud based technologies, particularly in the backup and storage arenas has seen an increasing number of organisations utilizing these technologies to backup and store business critical data on numerous shared platforms designed specifically for the purpose of securely housing backed up data. Many corporate and industry specific regulations however, prevent business critical data from being housed on backup devices not owned by the company and not housed in data centerss that are not located on the company premises. Backup devices will therefore continue to have a presence in the backup and disaster recovery space and advancements in the technology associated with backup devices will continually provide options for organizations that require onsite backups.
The suite of backup and disaster recovery solutions provide options for cloud based, hybrid onsite cloud as well as fully onsite backup requirements. While many organisations are taking advantage of the array of benefits offered by cloud based technologies, particularly when it comes to backing up business critical data, onsite backup devices will continue to form an important part of many data protection and recovery solutions.