5 essentials for a successful cloud data management strategy.

Every business relies upon data to run. A lot of information is required for daily operations — from Cloud data about products and customers to data on employment contracts and security systems to source code for applications in development. If this data becomes inaccessible for any reason it can be catastrophic for the business.

Cloud data management strategy

Many organizations have been collecting data for years and it’s common to have data residing in multiple locations spread across the globe. Networks grow more complicated by the day. When new software is deployed, it must be integrated with legacy systems, and there are new devices to consider, not to mention mergers and acquisitions.

This complex data structure is accessed and manipulated by an ever-changing cast of employees, contractors, and third-party partners. Data goes missing, sometimes it’s deleted by accident, and sometimes it’s deliberately stolen or destroyed. There are several potential cloud data management pitfalls that must be avoided. Maintaining accessible, reliable data access without compromising security requires careful planning and there are five essential cloud data management strategies to consider.

Data at rest

You may think your data is safe, packed away in storage behind firewalls and other defenses, but if you haven’t encrypted it, then it’s still at risk. Encryption prevents thieves from understanding any data they do manage to successfully exfiltrate. Your employees may have insecure mobile devices that offer a way in for attackers, they may share something accidentally, or a disgruntled employee could deliberately steal data. Encrypt it and guard access to decryption keys and you can reduce risk significantly.

Data at the point of access

Any request to access data must be reviewed and authenticated. Restricting access is vital and you should start by analyzing who really needs access to what. Set up specific access rights for different employees, verify the devices that request data as well as the people, and create a trail that records each data transaction. You can make access frictionless without sacrificing security with behavioral analysis to verify data requests.

Data in transit

Easy access to data is crucial for employees, but the conduit between them and the data in storage must be secure. Data should be encrypted while it moves, in case of any interception. You also need to consider VPN services, separate secure partitions on endpoints, and virtualization to ensure that data doesn’t live on insecure devices.

Data on arrival

Make sure that you verify the integrity of your data when it reaches its destination. It’s also crucial that data can verified to be genuine, so having a chain of custody or audit trail showing where data entered the company, where it’s been, who modified it and when is important.

Data backup and recovery

Even with impeccable data management and solid security in place, things can go wrong. It’s not enough to have backups and a recovery plan in place, you also need to test to make sure it works as expected. Proper data archiving in the cloud can offer swift and reliable access to your latest data when you need it most, reducing a hacker attack from a disaster to a mild inconvenience.

By considering these five cloud data management strategies you can ensure staff always has access to the data they need and mitigate the threat of attacks or errors. For a more complete analysis, please check out my blog on Network World. See how a Cloud Data Platform can help you address these 5 essentials.

About the Author:

Rick Braddy is founder and CTO of Buurst.

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Data protection matters! Every business requires data to run effectively. Product and service data, customer data, partner data, and even competitor data all inform your strategy and feed into your infrastructure of processes.

Without big data from mobile devices, building sensors, the growing Internet of Things, and a host of other sources it’s difficult to strategize effectively. But data is also the little things required for the day-to-day running of your company, like the alarm code, supplier addresses, and phone numbers, or the login details for your software systems.

Data is so vital that it can be described as business DNA. It enables your organization to survive and grow. But it’s only when you can’t lay your hands on that data, that its true worth is revealed.

Catastrophic data loss

No business wants to believe it can happen to them, but data breaches are common and can prove incredibly costly. With an average cost of $141 per data record, according to the Ponemon Institute’s 2017 Cost of Data Breach Study, the total cost of breaches can quickly run into the millions.

In the immediate aftermath of a data loss or theft, organizations focus on getting up and running again as quickly as possible. Downtime brings everything to a halt, making customers anxious and partners angry.

Punitive fines for failing to adhere to regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), can be very high. It’s also vital to close whatever loophole allowed your data to be exfiltrated before you can work on repairing damaged relationships and reputations.

Obscured by cloud

While the drive to be innovative and agile has driven widespread cloud adoption, the pursuit of new cloud services and tools has often fallen outside the purview of beleaguered IT departments. Shadow IT is a very real security concern because all too often the due care and attention required to protect company data have fallen by the wayside in the rush to realize an edge.

Failing to take the potential pitfalls of cloud data management into account can spell disaster. Data must be highly available and fully recoverable if you want to get your business back on track after an incident.

Placing blind trust in cloud vendors is a mistake you’ll only make once.

Lay the groundwork for a swift recovery

The longer your network and systems are down the more money you lose. If you lack storage snapshots that can be rapidly cloned or even recent backups that can be restored, your business will permanently lose data. Even if you locate an older backup the information will be out of date. Login details may have changed, configurations will be different, and some business accounts could be lost forever.

Do you have a plan in place to cater for an irrecoverable data loss? Consider the potential expense. Even if it transpires that a third party was to blame, which is often the case, your business will still be on the hook with customers and regulatory bodies. Ultimately, your business will pay the price and if it’s too high, you may not survive.

Don’t be short-sighted, get regular backups in place, and protect your business data properly.

For a more in-depth look, please see Network World’s “Skimping on business data protection could be a costly mistake.”