Protecting your Digital Transformation investment
Progress of human species made in the past two decades has been phenomenal, owing to rapid digitization and automation of tasks. And this progress continues as millions more gain access to the Internet every passing year. Speaking of the Internet, it has essentially flattened barriers to information exchange.
Continued progress of the human species depends on our collective abilities to organize ourselves, while leveraging technologies with clear outcomes. At Dell, we’ve made it our mission to be the essential provider of technology infrastructure that drives human progress. One aspect that remains critical to this mission is Digital Transformation that beckons each and every industry. Many of our customers and partners in Qatar have already made Digital Transformation as their core strategy. And for those who didn’t, the lockdown-laden new realities of remote work, social distancing and tele-commute has thrust digital transformation upon them. In all scenarios, more people have adopted to the new ways of work and life.
Source: Delltechnologies.com
Digital transformation is not a target, it is a journey. There’s no evidence that Covid19 is the last of the pandemics affecting the world. And so, this journey must continue – as should human progress. But this progress is threatened by assumptions that somehow traditional approaches to technology infrastructure and data security are sufficient to guarantee operational continuity – especially when a cyber-attack or a ransomware event rears its ugly head.
At Dell, we leverage technology to automate the world’s largest IT supply chain to deliver products and services to our customers in countries we operate in. We therefore require the best Cyber Data Defense to secure our ability to meet our mission. The traditional thought process we seek to challenge is this: some of the best information security products and services are based on the premise that cyber threats – external AND internal – can be thwarted. And worse yet, the assumption is that a cyber event can be predicted accurately and consistently. The reality couldn’t be farther from this as ransomware attacks and cyber-attacks are now common occurrences worldwide. Our region has perhaps the highest number of cyber-incidents per capita.
To secure progress that organizations make, securing their digital assets and all necessary technology resources becomes a natural goal. To achieve this goal, we would like to provide a different perspective. Some of you would have already come across the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
Source: Croptrust.org
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a long-term seed storage facility, built to stand the test of time — and the challenge of natural or man-made disasters. The Seed Vault represents the world’s largest collection of crop diversity. It was the recognition of the vulnerability of the world’s gene-banks that sparked the idea of establishing a global seed vault to serve as a backup storage facility. The purpose of the Vault is to store duplicates (backups) of seed samples from the world’s crop collections.
Permafrost and thick rock ensure that the seed samples will remain frozen even without power. The Vault is the ultimate insurance policy for the world’s food supply, offering options for future generations to overcome the challenges of climate change and population growth. It will secure, for centuries, millions of seeds representing every important crop variety available in the world today. It is the final back up.
Organizations need to consider deploying their own “Digital Svalbard” which will serve as an air-gapped data vault, ready to be invoked if the organization’s digital infrastructure is under attack. This thought process isn’t your traditional backup system or a traditional data storage copy. It is a true airgap with advanced data analytics that can help you isolate Golden data copies from Suspect data copies. At Dell, we refer to this as Cyber Recovery System or CRS.
We presented the Cyber Recovery System concept and consumption methods during Doha Bank’s Digital Divergence online event (hosted by Dr. R. Seetharaman the CEO of Doha Bank himself) last week, which was very well received. Interestingly Banking and FSI sector along with Healthcare are the most vulnerable of all sectors when it comes to cyber-attacks.
The mission of the CRS solution stack is simple: To deliver digital data defense and to be the final backup or a Golden copy for your business. NIST Cyber security framework, which is well known amongst CISOs and CIOs, refers to “air gap” and isolation as part of their fifth pillar “Recovery” framework aspect. And while other technology vendors and well-known information security players continue to provide cloud-based solutions (as do we, via Dell Secureworks and Vmware Carbon Black), our Cyber Recovery System is often the last line of Digital Defense, deployed and consumed as an onsite “airgap” isolated data vault.
At Dell, we will continue to innovate to remain your partner for essential IT infrastructure. Our investments received a major endorsement from none other than America’s central bank the US Federal Reserve through its “Sheltered Harbour Alliance” program – in February this year. Dell figures amongst the first few and the only major technology provider that delivers an end to end solution offerings for banks and FSI entities in the USA to comply with Sheltered Harbour designs. The alliance is intended to assist Western banks in America in their mission to secure their digital assets.
We firmly believe our investments in our people and solutions portfolio have delivered a right mix to help us meet our core goal of improving human lives. With solutions like CRS we intend to extend this critical defense capability to all our customers big or small, in every industry and market.