Scope: It Is All about Scope

When to implement security and data protection practices, or even change existing ones, is all about timing, knowledge, and scope. Deciding what to implement at any particular time requires knowledge of what needs to be fixed, and also of what the future could hold. To do this properly, you need to pay close attention to …

Utopian Disaster Recovery

Recently at Dell World, I was part of a conversation about what would be utopian disaster recovery and where we are today in the state of the industry. But where we are today is transforming, with a new name that encompasses many technologies. We are now using the term “data protection” (DP) to mean much …

Is the Backup Licensing Model About to Change?

Is the backup licensing model about to change? While I was at VMworld in San Francisco, I really took notice of all the different Recovery-as-a-Service (RaaS) options were available and believe this service has really reached it maturity. The amount of options and services available seems to have really taken a solid leap forward in the last few years. Most all the companies follow the same type of licensing model in that the software is licensed by the number of agents that are deployed in the environment, the number of hosts or the amount of data being backed up. Most all the companies except for one particular company I talked to.

Data Protection for the Hybrid Cloud

In many cases, when we mention Data Protection for the Hybrid Cloud, we are usually talking about backing up to the cloud. The cloud becomes a repository of our backup images and in some cases those backup images can be launched within clouds that use the same technology. Being able to send data to the cloud is becoming table stakes for infrastructure as a service (IaaS) data protection. However, once we move outside the realm of IaaS to Platform or Software as a Service (PaaS or SaaS), data protection is hit or miss.

Virtual Desktop Patching and Data Protection

Data Protection and patch management of virtual desktops, while not a sexy topic, is one that should happen on a regular basis within any organization implementing or working to implement virtual desktops. Recently, we have been testing virtual desktop software and there is a huge difference between patching and protecting data in a small number of instances and 1000s of instances. There are scale considerations as well as ease of use for file level and system recovery as well as issues with patching virtual desktops (not to mention other security issues).

Cloud Tenant PCI-DSS Dilemma

There is a dilemma for all tenants of a public or private cloud: Scope. For the tenant, they want everything to be in scope. For the Cloud Service Provider (CSP) they want to limit scope to the bare minimum. What does it mean for a Cloud to be ‘PCI Compliant’ and why is this a requirement for some tenants. The real issue, is what is in scope for PCI-DSS while your data is in the cloud and how can you as the tenant meet those requirements.