Data-driven organizations need to protect their valuable information resources. Providing robust data protection is one of the most important aspects of managing a company’s IT environment. A majority of businesses process valuable and sensitive data that demands to be protected. The failure to adequately protect enterprise data can result in large financial losses, the exposure of sensitive customer or employee information, and reputational damage that is extremely hard to repair.
Companies face many potential challenges in providing the necessary level of data protection to keep their valuable information secure. The following are seven of the biggest data protection challenges organizations face today.
Shortage of skilled IT personnel
The shortage of skilled IT personnel is a serious problem that can negatively impact an organization’s ability to protect its data resources. It can be extremely difficult for companies to attract top-level talent who possess the necessary skills to design, develop, and implement sufficiently reliable data protection solutions.
This problem can be magnified in small and mid-sized businesses that do not have the resources to offer some of the employment perks of their larger competitors. Despite their smaller size and potentially limited resources, these companies typically also have valuable data that needs to be protected. In the age of ecommerce, virtually every organization processes credit cards and is therefore in possession of sensitive personal data that needs to be protected from cyberthreats.
Lack of IT infrastructure and resources
Providing robust data protection solutions requires hardware, software, and technical resources to operate and manage them. As an example, let’s look at what is needed to implement a simple, on-premises backup and recovery scheme that includes sending media offsite for additional protection.
A company will have to provide computing power and personnel to run the backup software and ensure all data is successfully captured. They will also need media to store the backups and a method of transferring them to a safe, offsite location to be used for disaster recovery.
Financial costs
Substantial financial costs are often associated with implementing new data protection solutions. Addressing the preceding challenges of a lack of infrastructure and skilled personnel often are influenced by budgetary concerns as companies try to reduce IT spending.
Unfortunately, this can be counterproductive to the goal of protecting enterprise data resources. Companies may opt to invest limited financial resources to support other areas of the business and rely on ineffective legacy data protection solutions and techniques. Organizations are often only made aware of their vulnerabilities in the wake of a data breach with its financial and reputational repercussions.
An evolving threat landscape
Cybercriminals have become increasingly sophisticated in the methods they use to attack organizations. Ransomware has become even more virulent with the addition of data exfiltration and threats of public disclosure to convince victimized companies to pay. Phishing and other social engineering attacks are continuously evolving and becoming harder to detect. A single lapse in security can put an organization’s valuable data at risk.
Sensitive data is also at risk from advanced persistent threats (APTs) that infiltrate an IT environment and lie dormant to escape detection. They attempt to move laterally through the infrastructure in search of valuable targets. Once targets have been identified, an APT may steal or corrupt sensitive enterprise data resources.
A greatly expanded attack surface
The emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the rise of the mobile workforce have contributed to greatly expanding the attack surface that can be targeted by threat actors. Every laptop, computer, and mobile device used by remote workers offers cybercriminals an attack surface and entry point into the corporate infrastructure. This immensely complicates the task of protecting data resources.
Companies that deploy IoT solutions have additional data protection concerns. Each endpoint offers another way for cybercriminals to compromise the IT infrastructure and put data resources at risk. Supplementary measures need to be implemented to address the protection of data in IoT solutions. This protection often involves new technology and solutions because traditional data protection tools are not designed to support IoT systems.
Solution complexity and reliability
Addressing the complexity of modern data protection requirements and the reliability of competing solutions can be challenging and intimidating. Some of the data protection tools on the market may not be appropriate for a given situation and can give a company a false sense of security. Multi-cloud and hybrid environments require more flexible tools than legacy backup and recovery solutions.
It makes sense for a company to engage an experienced partner to help identify the right data protection solution that takes into account its unique requirements. Third-party input can be instrumental in making the correct decision when implementing a new data protection solution.
Insufficient knowledge and training
The lack of knowledge regarding data protection and inadequate training for the personnel responsible for implementing a solution can severely limit the ability of an organization to protect its information. Companies need to promote a security-conscious culture where everyone understands their role in protecting enterprise data. Training needs to be available so data protection solutions can be used effectively and efficiently.
The Value of a Reliable Data Protection Partner
Partnering with VAST IT Services can help alleviate many of the preceding data protection challenges that your company faces. VAST has your back whether you need managed services to ensure reliable data protection or assistance in selecting and implementing a new in-house solution. Our team of experts will help you identify a data protection solution that aligns with your company’s business objectives and maintains the security of your sensitive data resources.
We partner with industry-leading data protection vendors such as Cohesity, Druva, Veeam, and Veritas. Our familiarity with their products and offerings allows us to identify and customize a data protection solution that addresses your business requirements and keeps your data safe. We also support cloud-based data protection across all major providers including AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.
Get in touch with VAST today and learn how we can help you address the challenges of data protection and keep your data and businesses safe.
