Why infrastructure visibility means security

Forget the needle in a haystack analogy: the explosion in data to come will be more akin to locating a needle on a continent. With the enormous increase in volumes of data, and the additional complexity involved in creating the new, agile systems to process that data, it’s a real risk that organisations can lose track of what’s going on and where.

That presents a major security challenge. Without understanding precisely what data it is that an organisation owns, controls, and processes, it’s impossible to meet the increasingly stringent compliance standards that have been introduced the world over. Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the most glaringly present, recent example – and with among the most severe consequences for failure to comply.

Modern, digital-first organisations can only expect the accumulation of data to grow, and much of this data will be sensitive. Outside the walls of businesses facing this internal compliance challenge is the often existential risk of data leaks; the two are inextricably linked, with data regulations designed first and foremost to protect users and consumers from harm.

Should one of the worst scenarios occur – such as springing a disastrous leak where sensitive customer information is exfiltrated like names, addresses, and credit card numbers – businesses at the centre of these events will quickly learn the horrors of secondary effects like sometimes irreversible reputation damage, and mammoth financial repercussions.

In fact, the average cost of a data breach in 2019 as calculated by the Ponemon Institute was in the millions of dollars: hardly small change

Larger enterprises may sometimes be able to dampen the impact with cash reserves and access to other resources, but for organisations in precarious positions, a data breach without preparation or mitigation could easily tip the balance in favour of financial ruin.

Visibility, then, is key. Without identifying the data that you’re crunching, collecting, and storing – what it is, where it sits, who it belongs to, and what it’s for – it’s impossible for businesses to sufficiently protect it.

While no business can fully prepare for the impact of perimeter breaches, it is possible to draw up plans to mitigate and offset the worst of the damage. Key to solving the challenges in data growth is software, which can work at a rate even the most talented human staff are unable to.

Automated reporting and a unified portal for understanding the granular details of your IT operations, with all its complexities presented in a simple, intuitive way, is essential. HPE’s as-a-service cloud operating system, HPE GreenLake, offers a single dashboard that allows users to manage all IT operations from a central hub, enabling security and compliance monitoring with cloud-native design.

Crucially, because HPE GreenLake is on-premise, teams are empowered by the reassurance only afforded by being able to exert total control over the IT environment, but also able to enjoy the software intelligence and ease of use that’s normally associated with cloud, supported by the expertise on-hand from dedicated HPE staff should organisations run into any hurdles.

To discover more benefits about HPE Greenlake, and how it can help optimise your hybrid cloud environment, click here to visit the HPE website.