Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2018. Read them in this 10th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Contributed by Eran Farajun, EVP, Asigra
Asigra's Data Protection Forecast for 2018
In what Deloitte has called the "Symphonic Enterprise," 2018 will be
marked by the convergence of many new disruptive technologies and trends.
Organizations adopting new systems, solutions, and services will be challenged with
their orchestration to ensure a more harmonious IT infrastructure. Data
protection has not been sheltered from accelerated technological evolution
which has been driven by IT trends such as cloud computing, new regulatory
requirements and a rise in malware that targets both primary and secondary
data. Based on input from hundreds of IT services companies as well as industry
experts and analysts, below are predictions for 2018 expected to create both
challenges and opportunities for enterprise IT professionals.
Ransomware and the Targeting of
Data Recovery Systems
The rise of ransomware and its awareness among organizations and
individuals has IT administrators re-thinking their approach to dealing with
attacks. The most common response to a ransomware infiltration is to reload the
inaccessible files from the backup set. However, the criminal elements behind
such malware are becoming aware of the corporate remedies impacting their
ransomware-powered revenues. While the primary recovery strategy for ransomware
had been to conduct a recovery of the encrypted files from the backup or DR
repository, more recent attacks have targeted backup systems as well. In some
cases, disk-based backups were stored on the network, making them easy targets
for the malware. In all recent ransomware attacks, including Bad Rabbit, the
ransomware actively targeted backup data and attempted to delete or encrypt the
backup sets. In 2018, backup and recovery will enter a new era as an increasing
number of data protection vendors integrate advanced cybersecurity solutions
into their software in an effort to protect important backup files from the
claws of ransomware. These new technologies will enhance the positioning of
backup solutions as organizations place greater reliance on them in the defense
of such attacks.
Greater Market Share for
Converged Data Protection over Traditional Solutions
Unlike hyper-converged infrastructure and the leveraging of a
hypervisor, vendors offering converged data protection integrate data recovery
software solutions capable of addressing a wider variety of information recovery
tasks. The rising demand for converged data protection by organizations is
driven in part by the consolidation of data recovery capabilities into a
single, highly scalable hybrid platform and the increased efficiencies that
come with a single universal solution. Businesses that move toward a converged
data protection strategy value these solutions as they provide layers of
protection in the form of backup, disaster recovery, data enablement and
archiving. Furthermore, the centralization of these solutions reduce overall IT
costs for organization. This trend is expected to continue in 2018 and beyond.
Customer Demand for Public Cloud
Data Recovery Services
According to Gartner, businesses are increasingly turning to
infrastructure as a service (IaaS) to meet their IT requirements. This includes
everything from migrating existing applications to moving entire data centers
to cloud IaaS. Recent research indicates that more than 80% of CIOs will be influenced
by business management to evaluate migrating their data centers to the cloud by
the end of 2017. While most IaaS providers offer excellent data resiliency,
most do not offer native backup and specify in their agreements that it is the
responsibility of the customer for ensuring the recovery of information stored on
their cloud infrastructure. With the rise in adoption of the cloud there will
be a corresponding increase for services that complement cloud-based IT
infrastructure and this includes comprehensive data recovery capabilities that
ensure business continuity.
Regulatory Challenges Go
Mainstream in 2018
The amplified role that regulatory compliance is having on IT
operations will become front and center in 2018. Historically, regulations such as the New
York Department of Financial Services (DFS) Cybersecurity Regulatory Compliance
Requirements have been applied to specific industries such as financial
services providers. Now, with
information and technology being ingrained into everyone's personal lives
(Facebook, Google, Netflix, Amazon, etc.) the regulations have transcended
specific industries and are now mainstream.
Citizens expect information about their online behaviors and habits to
be treated in a certain manner. In 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation
(GDPR) and other privacy regulations will increasingly drive change in IT
operations, especially data protection.
These new regulations have caught the attention of businesses because of
the very significant financial consequences of non-compliance. Going forward,
regulation-driven policies will have a significant impact on how IT systems are
selected and deployed, requiring administrators to re-think their data
protection strategy in ways that adhere to such regulations.
Because of these emerging challenges, collaboration with an
organization's trusted IT services advisor is a first step in the planning and
coordination of how to best implement new solutions and strategies. Having the
right specialists on call to continually search for ways to enhance
productivity, reliability, business agility, and regulatory compliance will
provide the edge that organizations require to lead their organizations
successfully.
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About the Author
Eran Farajun is Executive Vice
President of Asigra where he is responsible for the company's global expansion,
marketing, business development and long-term strategic activities for the
company's cloud backup and recovery software platform.