Day: March 6, 2022

Prashanth G J, CEO of TechnoBind Revolutions in the technology field are often driven by the emergence of new technologies. The pandemic has not only challenged the modern world but also created a humongous opportunity to revolutionize. However, creating something valuable and profitable is the ultimate goal of any technical revolution. Cloud computing has been experiencing a period of anomalous growth, several factors have been responsible for this, including the rise of mobile computing, increased maturity of cloud offerings, improved network performance, etc. This constant innovation and growth lead to the invention of serverless cloud computing. Serverless cloud, the future Serverless computing is a cloud-based architecture where the cloud provider has total control over the underlying infrastructure that supports an organization’s activities. It is a platform that hides server utilization from developers and executes code on-demand automatically scaled and billed only if the code is running. Serverless cloud is a relatively new technology, and it is capable of turning your enterprise into a vibrant, flexible, service-oriented working model of the future. Serverless cloud enables your enterprise to expand into the cloud with serverless architecture all over the public and private cloud environments. One of the efficient ways to ensure that diverse resources are available at scale is done by migrating the IT environment to the cloud. Serverless cloud aims to put an end to tedious and time-consuming development and O&M work for servers and other infrastructures in the cloud-based application. When compared with traditional models, serverless models allow enterprises to build applications based on a large number of mature cloud service capabilities. This ensures fewer technical decision-making points and simpler implementations. Because of optimized cloud products, enhanced product integration capabilities, and improved software automation the serverless cloud will help enterprises improve their agility. Some key benefits of serverless cloud Expenses: The most tangible benefit is cost. Serverless cloud enables enterprises to only pay for whatever they need when they need it. Because there are almost no unnecessary resources, as blocks of servers are never sitting idle waiting for utilization. Configuration: The configuration will be significantly more straightforward and streamlined as the host firm handles the greater part. This facilitates scaling up the extra resources without customary downtime for your configuration. Speed: Because the enterprise does not need to manage the server, deploying the services and applications is much easier and faster. This will let the development team to focus on creating their service and then deploying it without worrying about the backend server. Automation which is a key trait of serverless cloud makes it particularly appealing for unpredictable workloads. Most importantly, serverless cloud enables developers to focus on what they should be doing making way for business agility and digital experimentation. Serverless Cloud is destined to transmute the future software model and process and is the future of cloud computing. With serverless cloud, enterprises can place their hands on improvised scalability, flexibility, and affordability. We are now witnessing an era where there is an ever-increasing demand to scale, leverage, and spin applications. These demands indicate that serverless clouds are the future. Cloud services are moving ahead to deliver real-time demand as they have ready deployment of services and applications. There is no doubt that the future-oriented technology for cloud services is serverless functions. Traditional cloud computing will undergo transition and will make way for serverless cloud. There have been several cases for many businesses and enterprises that prove that adoption of serverless cloud has resulted in operational boons such as cost-cutting and easy deployment.  

Nikhil Korgaonkar, Regional Director, Arcserve India & SAARC Most people today will consider reels of tape to be as dated as steam engine and analog cameras, having been replaced by newer, faster, and more efficient technologies. Unfortunately, one can still see many stories around reporting the death of tape storage, citing technology drawbacks as a significant reason. Such as, tapes can be labor-intensive, requiring a manual process to change them at the beginning or end of every day. Tapes are long and stringy, and can also be misplaced or outright lost. These factors and more have given tape storage a poor reputation in today’s marketplace, and they are helping to drive the steady migration to flash storage and cloud storage. But here’s the thing. Despite all the criticism and naysaying, tape has survived and is in fact more relevant today than ever as a means of data storage. With 5G adoptions and the dramatic expansion of the internet of things (IoT), the amount of data being generated is more than what can be stored easily. As of January 2021, there were 4.66 billion active internet users worldwide, accounting for 59.5 percent of the global population. By 2025, there will be 38.6 billion IoT-connected devices worldwide. One can only imagine what will be the size of data generated by 38+ billion objects! Storing such massive amounts of data on the cloud can be expensive, especially if all of it is not urgent or mission-critical. And nothing comes close to storing voluminous data on tapes. Besides, storage cost is very little per gigabyte. Tape is like the mainframe computer, which allegedly died more than 20 years ago but is still a tried-and-true technology in many large enterprises. Tape capacity shipments are on the upswing. A recent report from the Tape Storage Council found that a record 114,079 PB of linear tape-open (LTO) tape capacity shipped in 2019. That’s about 400% more than was shipped in 2009. Here are five reasons why tape storage offers significant advantages over other options. 1. Tape boasts better protection against ransomware Many of today’s data-storage technologies such as cloud storage, can’t fully protect the organization against the growing threat of ransomware attacks. On the other hand, tape backup is offline, so it can’t be easily infiltrated by malware or any other kind of cyberattack. The tapes themselves are often kept at offsite locations or in storage vaults. That means tape can serve as the last line of defense. Even if ransomware thieves penetrate all the other defenses, they still won’t be able to score if all the data is safely backed up on tape. So, it’s ironic that while we become more and more connected and digitized, we rely on good old tape to give us an extra layer of protection and better secure our data against ransomware. Tape offers other security capabilities as well, such as write-once-read-many (WORM), which means that data once written can never be overwritten or deleted, either unintentionally or by those who wish to do the harm. This capability is critical because it’s not just outside hackers who pose a threat. Sometimes insiders are the problem. If a disgruntled employee tries to delete all the data, having tape storage can completely negate that threat. 2.Tape can survive disasters Even after all these years, backing up data on tape and sending it offsite is still a highly reliable disaster recovery method. If the office burns down or there’s a once-in-a-century flood or any other kind of natural disaster, the safest way of protecting the data is to put it on tape in a secure remote location. That’s why savvy organizations will never stop doing tape storage. 3.Tape is cost-effective The cost of tape storage continues to decrease while its storage capacity increases. Tape remains one of the least expensive options for longterm data archiving. According to Fujifilm, tape is three to four times cheaper to use than disk for long-term storage. The leading tape backup format is LTO, and with the introduction of LTO-8 several years ago, enterprises can store up to 30TB of data compressed on a single tape. But that’s just the beginning. In the not-too-distant future, LTO-generation-12 will store up to 480TB compressed on one tape. That means tape can easily accommodate the massive data growth that almost every organization faces. 4.Tape makes insurers happy Cyber liability insurance is a type of insurance designed to cover losses and penalties associated with a data breach or other cyberattack. But large insurance providers are getting very selective when underwriting new cyber policies. Many will only insure customers that have ironclad data-protection strategies. That means businesses must increase their investments in security tools and processes to prove that they are a worthwhile risk to insurance providers. Having an A-to-Z strategy that includes disk storage, cloud storage, and tape storage gives a better risk profile in the eyes of cyber insurance providers. Need more benefits? Ask the insurance company if they will reduce the premiums since the data is backed up to tape. Better still, companies with an end-to-end security strategy that includes backup & recovery and storage may not even need cyber insurance. If companies have three different storage media at their disposal, they can protect themselves in pretty much any potential data-loss scenario. 5.Tape lasts much longer Data storage professionals have a saying. There are two types of hard disks: those that have failed and those that will fail. Yes, modern-day technologies like magnetic storage, flash storage, and cloud storage offer a lot in performance and flexibility. But they fall far short of tape storage when it comes to shelf life. They don’t even come close. Tape storage has an average lifespan of 30 years. Disk storage, by contrast, typically starts to fail after about five years. Right now, tape storage is the only medium that will preserve data well into the future. Tape may be one of the oldest methods for data storage, but it remains highly relevant for backup…

“The age of IoT and AI means that physical and IT security are no longer separate domains. Instead, everything is connected, and you need to converge your security leadership, teams, capabilities, and technologies to navigate the evolving risk landscape ~ Fred Streefland, Director of Cybersecurity and Privacy at Hikvision EMEA” Until recently, physical and cybersecurity domains were separate from one another. Security teams, access control systems, and CCTV systems were used to physically secure buildings – from data centers to factories and warehouses. And IT teams looked after IT and network security with firewalls, anti-virus software, and data encryption technologies. But as organizations have forged ahead on their digital transformation journeys, innovative technologies such as IoT and AI have blurred the lines between physical security and cybersecurity: a trend that’s set to continue long term. Why IoT is increasing your physical and IT ‘attack surface’ When thinking about your overall security strategy, consider that your security cameras and other security infrastructure are now ‘IoT devices’ that are connected to the network. This gives criminals and hackers a much larger ‘attack surface’ for their activities, with multiple ways into your organization. For example, hacking or otherwise accessing a network-connected camera or other device can allow criminals to override physical security controls and enter restricted areas or buildings. Equally, hackers who can breach IoT devices on the network may be able to disrupt critical systems, steal data, install ransomware, or otherwise compromise your company’s operations. Physical break-ins also pose major cybersecurity risks Equally, criminals who manage to circumvent your physical security infrastructure can also gain access to IT equipment and systems housed in restricted buildings. This means they can extend the impact of their localized attack across the length and breadth of your network, causing untold damage and disruption in the process. This is especially the case where server rooms are left open or unlocked within a building. The mission-criticality of the network, and the sensitive data stored in connected systems, means that much stronger security is needed for these kinds of facilities to ensure they are never accessed, even if intruders breach your building defenses. Here are some examples of how physical threat vectors can compromise digital security: An infected USB drive is planted in a parking lot, lobby, etc., which an employee picks up and loads onto the corporate network. An attacker breaks into a server room and installs a rogue device that captures confidential data. An attacker pretends to be an employee and counts on a real employee’s courtesy to hold the door for him as they enter together. An inside actor looks over the shoulder of a system engineer as they type administrative credentials into a system. The most well-known example of an attack on physical systems followed by an attack of IT systems is the hack on the retail giant Target in 2013. The attackers used an HVAC vendor’s credentials to compromise the network and ultimately the point of sale (PoS) systems of this company. The attackers ‘entered’ the company via the Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems and managed to compromise several millions of credit cards of Target customers, which caused the resignation of the CIO and CEO of Target. Why ignoring the issue isn’t an option The consequences of security breaches – whether they take place in the physical or IT domain – are potentially devastating for many organizations, and especially those in mission-critical industries. Security breaches at electricity sub-stations, for example, could leave entire towns or cities without power. And similar breaches in data centers could result in internet ‘blackouts,’ major data breaches, regulatory fines, and a raft of other negative impacts. To minimize the risks of security breaches in the age of IoT, forward-thinking organizations are looking to extend their security strategies seamlessly across the physical and IT domains. This holistic and integrated approach requires both organizational and technology changes that reflect the rapidly changing physical and IT security risk landscape. 4 key strategies for integrating your physical and IT security Forward-thinking organizations are beginning to integrate their physical and IT security provision based on 4 key strategies: Creating an integrated security culture and transformation plan: Any successful integration of physical and IT security begins with a strategy based on digital transformation. This strategy needs to be communicated across the entire security organization from the top down, preparing teams for the transition to integrated physical and cybersecurity, including key milestones and potential disruptions and change management issues. Appointing a CISO or data officer who is responsible for both physical and IT security: The siloed nature of physical and IT security responsibilities increases the risk that attacks in a particular domain will go undetected, or that responses will be too slow to prevent negative impacts from occurring. By appointing a CISO or other c-level executive for joint responsibility, and visibility, of physical and IT security, these potential gaps can be closed, and faster, more effective responses can be mounted in the event of a breach in either domain. Converging physical and IT security monitoring within a single dashboard interface: In terms of technology, integrating IT and physical security monitoring into a single dashboard helps to dramatically decrease the risk of a breach, and to mitigate the impacts if a breach should occur. For example, by mapping cyber and physical threats together, a unified dashboard can spot anomalies more quickly, and pinpoint where the threat originated based on an unidentified device in the network, unauthorized access to a device or physical space, or other threat indicators. Deploying innovative technologies that enable truly unified security responses: By implementing data analytics platforms, smart video solutions, AI-powered security algorithms and other innovative technologies of this type, organizations can detect security threats across physical and IT domains in near-real time. Additionally, false positives can be minimized, further saving time and resources and speeding up security responses. How Hikvision can help At Hikvision, we provide smart video technologies and AI-powered security algorithms that help to improve security in…