Understanding how and why cyber resilience is an integral part of your Cloud strategy is a key first step on the road to leveraging Cloud for growth and scale while staying secure. A mix of traditional and innovative approaches, and a strong partner ecosystem working together to boost resilience, are helping to reduce risk in Cloud environments.
The second episode of the series we explore cyber resilience and the Cloud. Today’s Cloud based technologies and services require leaders to invest in both traditional and innovative approaches to data protection and recovery.
In this episode of “Need to Know” host Liz Green, EMEA Advisory & Cyber Lead at Dell Technologies, is joined by two guests from Amazon Web Services (AWS) – Tom Tasker, Senior Storage Solution Architect, and Danny Johnston, Storage and Cyber Specialist.
Listen In To Learn
- What cyber resilience means in the context of Cloud environments
- Why achieving resilience in the Cloud requires both traditional and innovative approaches
- Why organisations should keep important, critical and sensitive data front of mind while building their strategy
- How partnerships are enhancing resilience and reducing risk across entire industries
First thing’s first – what is Cloud?
While there are many guides and think pieces that explain the concept of the Cloud and its many benefits and service offerings, few consider the storage aspects of Cloud solutions and its overall impact on the trajectory of organisations of all sizes.
In a pre-Cloud world, if an organisation wanted to establish a global footprint it presented a huge logistical and financial undertaking. Shipping technology to where it needed to be, establishing an overseas data center or negotiating complex rental and licensing agreements to use an established data center – Cloud technologies now allow businesses to reduce these complexities and establish a worldwide presence entirely through the comfort of their SDK or web browser.
With the only real barriers to access being having an email address and a means of initial payment, organisations of all sizes can establish a global foothold in moments from wherever they’re working. While this democratised access is in itself beneficial and has driven speed of innovation and collaboration across multiple industries, it is vital that organizations consider cyber resilience as part of Cloud strategy.
Considering Cloud Resilience
“Cloud is a place your data lives, and it’s not immune to cyber risk” – Liz Green
Cloud technologies are an excellent leveller, giving the newest start ups the same access and advantages as multi-billion dollar, well established organisations. But while it presents many strong opportunities and benefits, Cloud also opens up new avenues of risk.
It’s important to understand where responsibility for security and resilience lies when it comes to Cloud environments. While Cloud service providers are responsible for taking measures to ensure security ‘of’ the Cloud and its overall infrastructure, when it comes to security and resilience ‘in’ the Cloud, that’s the responsibility of the end user.
To achieve this, organisations can leverage ‘traditional’ security and resilience approaches in-Cloud, such as establishing firewalls, encryption and certificates, though these need to be balanced against the need for high availability of data. The ability to back up and restore data and services and enact business continuity and disaster recovery controls need to be prioritised when building resilience, and can be achieved through means including data vaults and ensuring ‘golden copies’ of data are kept secure and available.
Cloud Resilience is a Team Sport
“I really don’t think it should be done in isolation. Customers should be looking to partner with a multitude of other organizations to get this done.” – Danny Johnston
Establishing and perpetuating resilient Cloud environments isn’t something that organizations should look to achieve in isolation – there is an extensive ecosystem of partners out there who are able to help in creating and boosting Cloud resilience.
When setting out on the route to Cloud operations, it’s important to remember every opportunity for partnerships that can help form and build resilience. Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) can help provide initial operational simplicity while using Cloud to scale safely. Consulting partners, such as PwC and Deloitte, can help audit and identify mission critical data and separate that that might not need to be vaulted. Technology partners can help design, deploy and implement Cloud based solutions and advise on risk mitigating measures.
Depending on the industry your organisation works with in, it can also be beneficial to partner with regulators, who will be able to advise on what best practices for Cloud resilience for that industry look like, and ensure that workable solutions and reference examples are rolled out across the industry or ecosystem. This not only boosts resilience for one organisation, but for all, showcasing the power of partnership with multiple organisations working together for the collective good – even competitors.
At Dell Technologies, our objective is to provide a deep and broad portfolio of products, delivering specialist solutions for our clients, and partners enabling these solutions. To find out more about our range of cyber resilience solutions and how these can help inform your Cloud strategy, click here.
You can listen to all episodes of “Need to Know” podcast, including this conversation on cyber resilience, here.
