Extra tags: privacy
Attributed to : Remus Lim, Regional Vice President, ASEAN & India, Cloudera
While it’s still early in the year, businesses are already looking forward to the opportunities ahead with confidence. More organisations are looking to improve their business through insights derived from their data. But with more assets and data being stored digitally, cyberattacks pose a serious threat to any business.
The good news is that awareness around data security and privacy is growing in most businesses. Senior executives and management are more conscious of the dangers of unauthorised access to data stored within their organisations’ systems.
The increasing adoption of hybrid/remote working in response to the pandemic have driven businesses to further improve their security infrastructure. With Data Privacy Day just around the corner on January 28, it is crucial to remember that protection of an organisation’s data is of equal importance as protecting the organisation’s IT systems and networks.
Harnessing the power of data through hybrid cloud
Businesses are increasingly relying on hybrid cloud capabilities to manage the high volume of data used. IDG reports that 67% of enterprise workloads currently run on private and public cloud applications, while a 451 Research report indicated that 57% of companies are aiming to integrate their local resources with cloud services, with as much as 80% of companies already driving a hybrid cloud strategy.
Many businesses tend to move to the cloud without much consideration for future data needs, or recognising data as a strategic asset. An organisation’s cloud strategy and overall digital transformation initiatives should align with its strategic goals, and be driven by the aim of deriving more insights from their data for improved cost and operational efficiencies, regardless of where the data resides. A recent research report commissioned by Cloudera on the business impact of an enterprise data strategy found that 90% of senior decision-makers believe that their organisation would experience more revenue-paying opportunities if it could manage its data more effectively. Yet the research also found that nearly all surveyed IT decision-makers (95%) are experiencing at least some issues or uncertainties on how their organisation currently copes with all 5Vs of data (defined as volume, variety, veracity, velocity, and value).
With an anticipated shift of organisations’ data and performance analytics infrastructures to hybrid multi-cloud in the next few years, businesses need to implement effective hybrid data cloud strategies that will enable them to harness the potential of their data.
Consistency in data management and security
The changes in working arrangement and need to manage high data volumes highlight the urgency for consistent data management and security, and strict control over where data is stored. This is especially true when employees are working remotely and accessing the company’s network through external, and often unsecure, entry points that ultimately open the door to external threats. A Check Point 2021 cybersecurity report found that globally, there was a 93% rise in ransomware attacks during the year, and Asia Pacific had the highest number of organisations being attacked weekly, compared to EMEA and Americas.
Data breaches can have disastrous results especially if critical data assets are compromised. Companies that want to establish truly effective rules for data security must be able to identify sensitive data and bring it together from the heterogeneous infrastructures within the company. Only then can they create effective rules for data security. It has become an ongoing race between businesses and cyber criminals who can easily create detailed personal profiles from scattered user data – including important (house number) and small (shoe size) details – and use them for their own purposes.
Consistent data management and security, as well as strict control over where data is stored, are more important than ever.
Data governance and protection through an Enterprise Data Cloud
The best way for companies to counter this is with automated systems integrated into an Enterprise Data Cloud. Automated data protection within the Enterprise Data Cloud makes it possible to use analytical tools where they are needed and to define the rules for infrastructure and analytics as well as for data access only once.
The time required to classify data can be significantly reduced and effective data access rules implemented. This ensures good data governance and the best possible protection throughout the entire data lifecycle. This guarantees secure data protection even in the face of increasing data volumes - presumably also beyond 2022.
