Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2022. Read them in this 14th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Get Ready for Data Integrity Fire Drills
By
Don
Foster,
Global Vice President of Sales Engineering at Commvault
In 2022 CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, and other C-Suite executives
will begin mandating that their IT teams conduct periodic "fire
drills" to test the strength, resilience, and speed of their
cyber defense and disaster recovery processes and
solutions.
Over the past year these executives have read
how multi-billion dollar have all experienced
successful ransomware attacks. They have heard
how these ransomware attacks can force a company to shut down
its operations and pay multi-million dollar ransoms. They have seen how these attacks can
erode companies' hard-won reputations.
These executives might believe that their
organization's IT team has implemented a robust
strategy to fend off and, if necessary, recover from ransomware
and other attacks. But with the integrity of their business
threatened by these attacks, these executives are following the famous old
Russian proverb of "trust but verify." They might "trust" that
their IT team's strategy will work, they are also "verifying"
that it will work as well.
While real-time ransomware attack and other data
disaster drills require an investment of time and money, such
drills can confirm if an organization's cyberattack
defenses are robust, or discover weak points in these
defenses that cyber criminals might exploit. These drills can also verify that,
if a worst
case scenario occurs
and data has been locked, altered, or destroyed by an attack, it can
be quickly recovered from a secure backup copy --
turning what could have been a data disaster into a data speed bump.
As more and more of these drills take place, expect IT
solution and service providers who can help companies pass these drills with
flying colors thrive, as C-Suite executives seek to gain the peace of mind that
comes with knowing that even a successful ransomware or
other cyberattack will not put the integrity of their business at
risk.
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ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
Don Foster has spent his career successfully
merging his technical expertise and business acumen to address customer needs
with insightful knowledge of products and solutions. As Vice President, Global
Sales Engineering, Don works cross-functionally and closely with Commvault's
regional SE leaders to create a global framework to share best practices, drive
cross functional programs, and implement global initiatives. He is also
responsible for creating a global SE community to foster innovation in the
field and represent the community in the industry and with the ecosystem. This
includes the design and launch of a global Field Acceleration Services and
Technologies (FAST) team to expedite the sale and adoption of Commvault's
emerging Intelligent Data Management portfolio.
A 20-year veteran in the storage and data
management space, Don's previous role at Commvault was Vice President, Storage
Solutions, where he integrated the technology of SDS provider Hedvig, which
Commvault acquired in September 2019. In this capacity, Don worked to unify the
vision, R&D initiatives and go-to-market plans of both Hedvig and Commvault
into a single, comprehensive roadmap. Prior to this, Don served as Commvault's
Senior Director of Worldwide Solutions Marketing, where he worked directly with
the Executive Team to design and execute go-to-market strategies to help
customers take full advantage of their data - wherever it lives. Before joining
Commvault, Don managed the IT function at a leading Chicago law firm, and
became a respected expert in data management, backup and recovery, and disaster
recovery planning.