Ensuring Data Center Resiliency
Most team leaders understand a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. This once-popular adage, formerly used to describe the importance of teamwork, is once again becoming relevant in IT circles. As businesses embark on digital transformations – with unlimited connections, critical data, and even more potential vulnerabilities – CIOs agree that their infrastructures are only as safe as their weakest point. That’s because the next IT security breach could be just around the corner.
Complex security breaches are being carried out on a daily basis. The Identity Theft Resource Center reports nearly 86 million corporate records were exposed in 2014 alone – encompassing approximately 783 breaches. Cybersecurity research firm The Ponemon Institute noted more than 110 million people recently had personal information hacked – a number only expected to rise with the IoE and accelerated internet and mobile device usage. Despite these warnings, the Economic Intelligence Unit still projects more than 80 percent of global businesses lack appropriate IT security strategies. Perhaps that’s why the US Government has launched National Cybersecurity Awareness Month to help protect mission critical, corporate data.
While organizations understand business resiliency is a key success factor, most corporate security strategies are simply not up to the challenge. To safeguard assets, CIOs must evolve their thinking beyond simple perimeter protection to embrace a comprehensive approach to network, data, applications and even people. Next, it’s important to understand that cyber-attackers don’t look at businesses from the perspective of “what walls have been erected” – they only see the goal of accessing the “crown jewels” a company seeks to protect most, and they will take any road to get there. This is exactly why it’s critical to prioritize assets and segment items according to risk.
The Resilient Data Center Design
Getting to the bottom of the analysis may require a formal risk assessment or vulnerability assessment – but both are great starting points for evolving your security posture to meet the modern threat landscape. This helps CIOs immediately identify what to protect, and then assign appropriate access management controls, threat intelligence and IPS technologies.
Unfortunately, many businesses lack the internal resources and expertise to meet the demands of emerging security and compliance requirements. For this reason, managed security services are increasingly being leveraged to quickly assess and prioritize corporate risk. The right partner is not only capable of conducting global security audits to both assess and shore up vulnerabilities, but can also design systems beyond typical firewalls. These experts understand full protection must go beyond the basics – incorporating advanced services and tools ranging from access management controls and threat intelligence to comprehensive security monitoring and incident response services. By choosing to partially or fully outsource the ongoing management of their IT security, enterprises can often get a higher level of protection and support for less investment than doing it in-house.
