Multi Infrastructure Freedom for Data Protection and Cyber Recovery by Dell

By David Mitchell, product consultant specializing in cybersecurity solutions, Dell Technologies, Inc.

Freedom for IT to move at the speed of business, and confidence that critical data is safe from the latest advanced threats are not mutually exclusive. Cybersecurity solutions designed to keep critical data secure and organizations protected are finally beginning to support this fast pace.

New threats and new ransomware continue to shift and evolve, and it’s not just encryption anymore. The real-world consequences of a successful cyberattack have been clearly highlighted this week with the closure of one of the largest pipelines in the U.S. due to ransomware. This was a major incident, but organizations of all makes and sizes are becoming targets of opportunity. Will this stifle the development of more agile and user-centric solutions?

Freedom for IT to move at the speed of business, and confidence that critical data is safe from the latest advanced cybersecurity threats are not mutually exclusive. Cloud, on-premises, and hybrid-infrastructures have been moving into the mainstream for some time now. Cybersecurity solutions designed to keep critical data secure and organizations protected are finally beginning to support this pace.

As organizations adopt digital transformation, new modern infrastructures (on-premises and cloud) are modernizing to become the standards for successful IT operations. Securely moving business-critical data to an isolated environment via an operational air gap is critical. The air gap is both physical (via a locked room on-prem, in an off-prem or cloud-based vault) and logical (data and management path, command and control access) and provides security of the cyber recovery vault from the attack surface of production and backup infrastructure. It brings a level of protection for rapidly expanding critical data. With organizations of all makes and sizes at risk of an advanced attack the freedom to use the infrastructure of choice to accomplish this has never been more important.

Hybrid and multi-cloud environments offer operational flexibility
The ability to scale quickly and access innovative services and hardware, both on-premises and in a multi-cloud environment, has a proven benefit. Improved reliability means less downtime and better access for users. Better value means organizations of all sizes can diversify and scale public and private clouds as needed, with sensitive and confidential data in a private cloud data center or on-premises, while placing other data on a public cloud. This scattering approach and duplicating data across multiple clouds lead to new security and compliance risks, potential synchronization issues, and increased resource costs.

Current disaster recovery infrastructure solutions address some concerns but are designed more for critical business continuity. Protecting growing critical data from threats and ransomware using modern disaster recovery or business continuity solutions is not enough to address modern threats to an agile cloud environment. Disaster recovery can help companies continue from a regional disaster such as flood or fire, but organizations are impacted globally by modern cybersecurity attacks.

Data Vault protection in cloud
Trusted security solutions – not disaster recovery alone – are required to better protect an organization. Data protection and recovery solutions are a proven strategy, and Dell Technologies, Inc. offers the leading cyber recovery technology solutions through Dell EMC PowerProtect Cyber Recovery. A mature on-premises data center solution for over five years; now, new tested cloud-based solutions make these valuable cyber recovery solutions more readily available. These new infrastructure options for data recovery are more accessible and straightforward, and viable to help organizations of all sizes implement a resilient data recovery strategy.

Cyber Recovery now brings an AWS architected vaulting solution for protecting a copy of critical data from ransomware and cyberattacks. For rapid deployments with flexible recovery options, PowerProtect Cyber Recovery with AWS provides a data center environment isolated from corporate or backup networks and managed separately through restricted access clearance.

This solution means no on-premises data center is required, and is managed separately through restricted access clearance. It is similar to the on-premises solution; however, it provides physical isolation within the AWS cloud for the vault’s location. It can give a vault-based cyber recovery solution for multiple data locations throughout the organization and is rapidly versatile for various business use cases requiring data protection or governance requirements. PowerProtect Cyber Recovery for AWS enables organizations to quickly and easily deploy an enhanced data protection solution with minimum investment.

PowerProtect Cyber Recovery on AWS includes:

• Automated operational air gap and off-site vaulting protect critical data

• Reliable, proven protection with PowerProtect DD Virtual Edition

• Simplify deployment with flexible recovery options

• Software-based immutability

For rapid deployments with flexible recovery options, PowerProtect Cyber Recovery for AWS
provides an isolated data center environment disconnected from corporate
or backup networks for organizations of all sizes.

Vault operates in 4 essential steps to protect and preserve critical data:

1. Data representing critical applications are synced through the air gap into the vault, unlocked by the management server, and replicated into the vault target storage.

2. The air gap is then re-locked. 

3. A copy of that data is made. Vault retention time is configurable. 

4. The data is locked to further protect it from accidental or intentional deletion. 

The vault is always logically isolated via an operational air gap. Vault components are never accessible from production, and access to the vault target is extremely limited when the air gap is unlocked.

Recovering data from the vault after ransomware or modern cyberattack is critical. There are several ways recovery can be performed, and with simplified and management procedures, even testing and validation can be performed quickly and easily. Recovery of specifically targeted data can go back to the corporate data center or a new VPC or clean environment within AWS. Monitoring and reporting are also provided and shared outside of the vault environment in various secure methods.

Now, organizations of all shapes and sizes have access to vault-based data protection and have the convenience and flexibility to support whatever is coming, whether a cybersecurity threat or an agile business need. Moving to the multi-cloud distributed data model does not have to mean opening the risk to constantly evolving cyber threat technology. With Dell EMC PowerProtect Cyber Recovery, trust that your data will be protected now and into the future.