Majority of businesses are not equipped to tackle new-age threats – Dell EMC

Ripu Bajwa, Country Manager – Data Protection Solutions, India, Dell EMC in a conversation with VARINDIA gives the readers an idea about the company’s offerings in the data protection and back-up solution area and how as a security company does Dell MEC look at data security - 
 

After the recent spate of cyber-crime attacks, how is Dell EMC looking at protecting its customers from such unwanted incidents?
As per, EMC Data Protection Index 2016, 39% of the Indian firms surveyed have experienced data loss resulting in losses worth over $1 million. Theinternet consumption in India has seen a steep rise from being 238 million last year to 360 million in 2016, because of which Indian enterprises have been gaining a lot of exposure and attention globally. This exposure has put these firms at a risk emerging from various cyber threats due to old and vulnerable security solutions they have in place. Also, looking at the global picture, the recent deluge incyber-attacks has generated the urge for data protection solution far more than ever.

Dell EMC’s data protection portfolio is a comprehensive portfolio which is equipped to deliver complete protection for enterprises of all sizes. No matter where data lives or what happens in the data center, Dell EMC offers the leading solutions to keep the data secured. To fortify the data of our customers from any kind of unwanted threats, we offer wide range of data protection and security solutions for our customers. Integrated Data Protection Appliance (IDPA), Disaster Recovery solutions etc. are few of the solutions we provide to safeguard the data of our customers.

What kind of data protection and back-up solutions is Dell EMC offering at present? 
Dell EMC has a holistic portfolio when it comes to data protection and security solutions. Our enlarged portfolio serves as one-stop solution to safeguard data and keep organizations protected from hackers and cyber-attacks. Our solutions range from Integrated Data Protection Appliances to Isolated recovery solutions to Disaster Recovery solution.

•    Integrated Data Protection Appliance (IDPA) is something we recently launched. IDPA is a purpose-built, pre-integrated and turnkey appliance that converges protection storage, software, search and analytics in a single appliance. It provides data protection across a wide ecosystem of applications and platforms, and offers native cloud-tiering for long-term retention. In short, IDPA is a holistic approach to data protection which enables customers to greatly simplify and lower their cost of overall data protection environment. 

•    Isolated Recovery Solution provides complete protection against attacks and safeguards the data. This creates isolated/backup copies of the data & stores it in an environment which is totally detached from the primary data storage network. This helps organizations to be well prepared in the case of a cyber-attack.
•    Disaster Recovery Solution (DR) is another solution which Dell EMC provides to protect the precious data of any organization in case of a cyber-attack. DR consists of a set of policies and procedures which helps in the recovery of important technology infrastructure and systems following a natural or human-induced disaster.

What are some of the challenges that Indian businesses are dealing with in data protection?  
When it comes to data protection, Indian businesses are mostly on point to protect themselves from the traditional cyber threats but majority of the businesses aren’t prepared to tackle the new-age threats. Therefore, due to emerging new threats, the data loss has become an increasing concern. 

The primary challenge that Indian businesses face is to tackle the external or internal security breach, which causes data loss. Secondly, most of the enterprises have their IT environment in the public cloud but at the same time believe that their data isn’t completely safe. Another major obstacle which lies in the path of Indian businesses is that the lack of confidence to fully recover their systems or data in the event of data loss.

Are SMBs in India fully equipped against such security attacks? 
SMBs have always been the soft targets of the cyber criminals as it is easy to escape the firewall of data in these companies. Almost half of the small scale business is affected to some extent by some degree by cybercrime. Hence, it becomes an important measure for those businesses to survive in the market by overcoming these cyber-attacks. The most important step for such businesses is to migrate into cloud and provide authentication measures for their employees. A back-up for all the data becomes essential as well. India also faces a shortage of resources who expertise in cyber security skills which exposes these businesses into further risk.

SMEs are very important when it comes to Dell EMCs business perspectives as the main objective is to help them grow by transforming them digitally. Hence, Dell EMC provides a wavelength of data protection as well as security solutions for SMBs which range from Integrated Data Protection Solutions to Disaster Recovery Solutions.

Best practices for CIOs & CISOs

•    Safeguarding data on mobility devices: Cyber criminals look to maximizing their profits through various mobile malwares as mobile devices are prone to cyber threats. Generally people store most of their confidential and important data on their smartphones or any other mobility devices, which makes it even more essential to protect them from cyber-attacks. Hence, CIOs should take essential steps to ensure that they safeguard their data.

•    Creating protection copies: In order to protect their business from data losses and to stay protected from threats like hacking and accidental data loss, it becomes essential for Indian CIOs and CISOs to create protection copies. Sometimes, those protection copies are at risk too as hackers may take them down as well. Businesses can also leverage advanced data protection solutions and separate copies of their data from the network. 

•    Disaster Recovery plan: CIOs must also have a disaster recovery plan in place to ensure that the business can survive cyber-attacks and data loss.