Not all heroes wear capes in today’s digital economy

Imagine
a reality where darkness cloaks the world. Where backstreet alleys are the
latest setting for the depths of sophisticated crime; where lives of innocents
are under threat, and evil threatens to triumph over good. In today’s digital
reality, this is not far from the truth.

For organizations today, a single catastrophe
may spell disaster for the unprepared. Data breaches are estimated to cost a
business US$4 million, on average – hardly a nominal amount[1]
. Take the recent WannaCry and Petya/GoldenEye attacks as cases in point, they
were wake-up calls for the unprotected, to the tune of $1 billion in damages
and counting just for the WannaCry incident alone[2].

Managing data in today’s digital economy is no
mean feat. To stay vigilant and to navigate the treacherous cyber landscape,
organizations need to understand the value of their data, wherever they reside,
to stay agile, compliant, secure and competitive. But, what if, we all had a
superhero, bearing the latest cape or iron suit, to save the day?

Our everyday superheroes might not look as good
as Clark Kent, but their mission remains the same – to know and use data for strategic
decision making. And what of the qualities of our seemly unlikely hero? They’re
not that different from our fictional comic book heroes – strength, perception
and dexterity.

With the ability to catch a speeding bullet,
withstand extreme temperatures and save a damsel in distress, the Man of Steel
never fails to save the day. Much like the Man of Steel, succeeding in today’s world
of managing data requires the traits of agility, dexterity and adaptability,
which ultimately determines how quickly an organization can use data to make
that important decision or just simply have information available to users in
times of crisis.

And this comes as no surprise. Studies have shown
that 53 percent of companies can only withstand one hour of downtime before
adverse effects permanently manifest in the business[3].
What’s worse, beyond the monetary damages incurred, an outage also causes
inconvenience, and potentially people’s lives as well, when breaches occur to critical
national infrastructure. Dexterity and agility help minimize these unexpected
downtimes caused by cybersecurity issues, resulting in a minimal loss of
assets, akin to a superhero ensuring the peace and harmony of the cities that
he has sworn to protect. In addition, just as a superhero brings confidence to
the city he protects, dexterity and agility enable businesses to take swift
decisive action, knowing they are prepared.

A
360 point of view, wherever data lives.

See-all, hear-all and know-all – these are the
traits of the Man of Steel that enable him to have a bird’s eye view of world
issues, enabling him to nip trouble in the bud, before it brews into a
catastrophe. Today’s data management professionals can see this digital world
and nip potential issues in the bud – just like how Commvault can identify
issues with its data management solutions before it takes root.

The transparency and single view of the
processes allows data management professionals to flag issues during backup
processes and fix it before it grows. While the Man of Steel cannot prevent any
attacks, he responds quickly to save people in sticky situations. Data
management professionals can identify specific storage and recovery
requirements in different situations, prior to any attacks. Data stores are
also encrypted, providing protection to the platform architecture and reduce
the possibility of having the back-up held as ransom during breaches.

The migration of data servers to cloud is no
easy feat, much like a superhero migrating citizens between cities in an event
of danger. In the digital world, today’s modern superhero can move data away
from threats as well – by migrating a company’s infrastructure from
on-premises, to the cloud.

With the increasing complexity, and volume of
data collected by businesses due to the growing amount of devices connected by
the Internet of Things, cloud migration is the smart choice. It enables data to
be agile and selectively retrieved, and it is available anytime, anywhere, and
across various platforms. This trend is already occurring, according to IDC.
Cloud computing services are projected to grow at 30.6 percent through 2019,
with more companies steady embracing cloud adoption for ease of access of data
and backup management[4].

That means a superhero needs to understand its
citizens to get to the root of the issues, and answer to the needs of the city.
With data seated safely in the cloud, information fluidity, accessibility and
scalability enabled through Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) allows workload
portability, enabling adaptability through services such as virtual machine
compatibility, analytics engine implementation, and even cloud-to-cloud
migration. Knowing your data well also allow you to stay complaint, amidst the
shifting data laws happening around the world due to increasing threats in the
cyber space.

With
companies transforming rapidly in today’s day and age, data is more than just a
tool; it is a company’s strongest asset. Much like a city facing multiple
threats from every possible direction, an organization needs to understand the
importance of having a strong data management solution to protect their assets
from dangers beyond their control. Today’s superhero might not wear capes, but
they possess the same resolve, will and responsibility to protect the assets
and infrastructure that they have been tasked to defend.

When they are the most effective, our superheroes work
tirelessly to add context to an organization’s greatest asset, data, and make
it look effortless. Just as a safe city enjoys daily peace as its new norm, be
the superhero that empowers your business to be agile, compliant, secure and
competitive and makes data mastery business as usual.