By Jerod Johnson, senior technology evangelist, CData
Data is a vital asset in the modern enterprise, fueling efficiency, innovation, and business growth. It’s no wonder it’s become a major target for hackers looking to profit at the expense of unprepared organizations. In fact, 95% of breaches are financially motivated.
As the number of data breaches continues to rise – hitting an all-time high in 2023 – business leaders face a dual challenge: improving data access across the organization while simultaneously safeguarding it against potential security threats and breaches. Without a strong security framework and cohesive data governance, businesses open their data operations up to security risks and compliance concerns that can threaten their entire cloud infrastructure.
In today’s precarious environment, organizations need centralized and secure data management practices to enable access to data in a safe and compliant manner. After all, enterprise data should be an asset, not a liability.
Why it’s difficult to protect data in the cloud
Fortifying their data in the cloud is the top priority for most organizations. That’s because cloud environments have become a primary target for malicious actors, with approximately four in 10 businesses experiencing a cloud-based data breach in the past year.
Cloud defenses must encompass the increasing volume and complexity of enterprise data, where diverse data structures and schemas are spread across various cloud-based applications, platforms, and networks. At the same time, organizations need to ensure teams can seamlessly access, use, and share data no matter where it resides in the organization.
It’s a delicate yet crucial balance to strike, especially for highly regulated industries like healthcare, finance, and the nonprofit and public sectors. For example, a nonprofit organization that assists refugees must be able to seamlessly access and analyze personal information, donor records, or other sensitive data. But it must do so without compromising people’s anonymity and privacy.
If access controls and security measures are too stringent, data becomes disparate and disconnected, locking teams out of accessing crucial data they need to make informed decisions. Conversely, open access to data without proper governance practices leads to gaps in security configurations that can lead to data breaches. In the case of the refugee nonprofit, sensitive information in the wrong hands could literally put people’s lives at risk.
Traditional data management options, such as ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) pipelines, typically involve duplicating data and moving it from its source to a data warehouse or another storage system. Although this approach offers greater data connectivity and accessibility, it can also lead to unauthorized access, data leakage, and information left in insecure locations. In the modern cloud environment, these traditional tools can’t keep up with the scale and complexity of enterprise data.
3 ways to combine data security and connectivity
Organizations need a better approach to bolster both data access and security. While 60% of all business data is stored in the cloud, only 39% of companies have high levels of confidence in their ability to safeguard cloud data.
As you look to improve data management, consider the following steps to strengthen security and compliance without sacrificing connectivity, access, and performance.
1. Know where your data lives, who needs to access it, and how to protect it
Before you can unlock the full potential of data, you need to understand every aspect of your data ecosystem and all of the stakeholders involved. With the average business maintaining hundreds of data sources, it’s crucial to know what data your organization creates, where it resides, who needs to access it, and how often they need it.
For example, your HR team may need quarterly budget estimates from finance to inform recruitment and retention strategies, while marketing may need the latest sales figures every week to gauge which strategies are and aren’t working. By mapping out your organization’s data sources and users, you will gain a better understanding of how to create strong security defenses and seamless connections to data sources, while closing security gaps and vulnerabilities. At a minimum, your security defenses should include:
- Robust authentication and authorization controls
- Encryption, data anonymization and secure file transfer methods
- Audit trails and security monitoring solutions
2. Identify digital solutions to centralize data management
While you may need to rely on ETL pipelines and data warehouses in certain circumstances (such as handling vast amounts of unstructured data), there are many times when you need to leverage real-time connectivity solutions that provide centralized data management. Data virtualization is one way you can centralize data access while maintaining control over security and compliance. Unlike ETL pipelines, data virtualization provides a single access layer without moving or duplicating data. This allows you to create consistent security processes whether data is stored in a CRM, an ERP, or any other location.
Whatever tools you select, aim for solutions that offer:
- The greatest breadth and depth of data connectivity and access
- Data combination capabilities so you can connect data from different services without duplicating it
- Cloud-based data access that meets compliance standards across locations and regions
3. Empower your data teams, and reduce burdens on your business teams.
Technology infrastructure and data connectivity solutions provide a strong backbone for data management. But it’s your people who power your data operations – and they ensure security remains strong. With cohesive security measures in place, you can empower teams to create and refine data management practices that will work best for them without the need for heavy IT involvement.
For your data teams, enable user-based provisioning that allows users to replicate security and permission settings from native platforms, and set up connections with precise access to entities and fields. This not only minimizes the risk of data breaches but also ensures that user-based permissions align with team needs.
For your business teams, select platforms that provide universal data access and seamlessly integrate with existing tools, enabling users to continue to use their preferred tools without disruptions or extensive retraining. Likewise, provide non-technical staff with tools, training, and authorization to create their own data solutions and processes, freeing up IT teams to focus on critical aspects of data governance and security.
Centralized processes unlock the full potential of enterprise data
As organizations navigate the complexities of securing data in the cloud-native environment, they can’t afford to compromise connectivity and access for security and compliance. Fortunately, they don’t have to.
Data virtualization and other centralized data management tools not only strengthen and streamline security, they also enable teams to derive valuable information and actionable insights from enterprise data. This powerful combination is key to creating a resilient, compliant, and data-driven cloud ecosystem.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jerod Johnson is a Senior Technology Evangelist at CData Software. Jerod creates educational articles, videos, and webinars to help customers and prospects understand how CData’s real-time data connectivity solutions allow businesses to connect, integrate, and automate their data. He holds a BS in computer science and mathematics education from North Carolina State University.
