The era of cloud computing has provided companies of all sizes with a wide range of benefits. Organizations can take advantage of the flexibility and scalability offered by public cloud service providers (CSPs) to address many types of business objectives. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can use cloud resources to compete more effectively with larger market rivals.
Data management is one aspect of an organization’s IT environment that can be complicated by implementing cloud-based solutions. After moving to the cloud, a company’s data resources are no longer neatly contained in an on-premises data center. Information may be stored in multiple locations and use products and services from several different CSPs.
It can become very challenging to manage data efficiently in the cloud. We’re going to look at some of the specific challenges businesses face when managing cloud data and several effective solutions offered by VAST IT Services.
Challenges to Data Management in the Cloud
Data management in the cloud presents companies with multiple challenges. The failure to successfully address the following challenges can put valuable and sensitive data resources at risk.
Data visibility
Data visibility is an essential prerequisite for effective data management. Organizations cannot hope to efficiently manage their information if they cannot obtain visibility into where their data is stored. Cloud environments can make it difficult to achieve the necessary level of visibility to ensure reliable data access.
Incomplete data visibility is especially problematic in the multi-cloud infrastructures which are becoming increasingly popular to address a company’s diverse business requirements. Companies need to adopt tools that provide visibility into the complete digital estate to effectively manage their resources.
Data security
Data security is a major concern of virtually all IT professionals. Protecting the security and privacy of valuable and sensitive data assets in today’s sophisticated threat landscape is a challenge no matter what type of infrastructure is involved. Resources scattered among multiple cloud solutions can be especially hard to protect.
Companies need to implement comprehensive measures to safeguard the security and privacy of their valuable information in the cloud. At a minimum, the following solutions are needed to successfully protect data security.
- Identity and access management (IAM) tools to ensure only authorized personnel can use data resources.
- A cloud access security broker (CASB) to protect access to cloud data.
- Strong authentication policies including multi-factor authentication to protect against lost or compromised credentials.
- Robust backup and recovery solutions to enable the quick restoration of lost or corrupted data.
- Disaster recovery plans to address large-scale outages that impact the ability to maintain business operations.
Data migration and integration
Migrating data to the cloud can present organizations with multiple challenges. The information needs to be efficiently transferred from an on-premises or other cloud environment while causing minimal operational impact. Once the information is in the cloud, it needs to be integrated with existing data and applications to address business requirements.
Successful cloud migrations require detailed planning and execution regarding data movement and integration. All information needs to be verified after being moved and before integration into the IT environment. System performance should be monitored to evaluate the impact of running applications using the migrated data.
Cost management
Controlling the costs of managing data in the cloud can be extremely challenging. Companies can find themselves over-provisioning capacity by not having granular visibility into their cloud infrastructure. This can lead to cost overruns that negate some of the benefits of moving to the cloud.
Multi-cloud environments present additional complexity as CSPs may use different pricing models, making it difficult to efficiently compare options. The ability to view and manage cloud resources from a unified interface can facilitate making cost-effective decisions to maximize the IT budget. It may become evident that certain workloads fit best with a specific CSP and the environment would benefit from migrating to the alternate platform.
Regulatory compliance
Companies storing regulated information in the cloud need to ensure it is handled according to specific data security and privacy standards. These may include activities such as encrypting all regulated data to protect it from unauthorized use. In some cases, regulated data may be required to be processed on segregated systems.
The information may also be subject to stringent backup and retention regulations. Long-term archiving of records and formalized disaster recovery plans may be required when processing sensitive data such as individuals’ healthcare or financial records. Regulatory non-compliance may result in substantial financial, legal, and public relations repercussions.
VAST’s Cloud Data Management Solutions
VAST has your back with multiple solutions that help tame the challenges of data management in the cloud era. Our team of experienced professionals understands the complexity of managing and protecting your valuable cloud data. The following are some of the services that effectively manage and safeguard data in the cloud.
- VAST View is a comprehensive solution that addresses all aspects of migrating to the cloud and managing your cloud resources. We begin with discovery and assessment phases that evaluate your environment for cloud readiness. Planning and migration follow as we move the appropriate resources to efficient cloud solutions. Once your data is in the cloud, VAST View assists with optimization and orchestration to efficiently manage your information.
- Cloud access security – We support the Bitglass CASB solution to protect your data in the cloud to provide secure access promoting a mobile workforce. Implementing a CASB reduces the risk of an expensive data breach.
- Cloud Backup-as-a-Service (CBaaS) and managed backups are two data protection options available through VAST that ensure your information is safeguarded against loss or corruption. These solutions are built on cutting-edge data protection technology and include features like immutable backups for regulatory compliance.
- Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) gives companies of all sizes an efficient method of protecting their IT environment from natural or man-made disasters. We leverage the technology of AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery to offer our customers increased resilience and flexibility.
Give us a call and let us help you efficiently manage your cloud data. Whether you are considering a cloud migration or already have a multi-cloud environment, we have the skills, expertise, and solutions to raise your data management game to the next level.
