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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.