Data Center

As enhanced video surveillance (EVS) technology has proliferated through industrial facilities, business and technology leaders have realized that these tools also have broad potential applications in the world of workplace safety. Like the security guards responsible for detecting intrusions, workplace managers faced an almost insurmountable task of identifying unsafe conditions and correcting them before an accident led to injury or property damage. Applying new analytics techniques to the video streams provided by the surveillance system allows managers to receive the same type of proactive alerting for safety issues. Powered by artificial intelligence, these analytics systems interpret what’s taking place on the video and alert stakeholders of issues that require attention.

As IT organizations look to be more agile in supporting ever-changing business requirements, they’re turning to Kubernetes to speed up their delivery of value. However, with Kubernetes being an open source software, IT departments might have too many options for modernizing with this platform. Let’s use the fictional monster Frankenstein as an analogy to explore the challenges in building this modern framework.

The CIO of a large financial services firm recently approached me for assistance in building out her company’s cyber-resilience strategy. Specifically, she knew that the firm was going to need to add an additional data center over the next year to meet growing demand, and she wanted to use that expansion as an opportunity to enhance the firm’s business continuity program. CDW provided the company with some practical advice to help draw this additional benefit from its investment.

While we were helping a very large organization expand an existing global footprint, the advice we shared is relevant across firms of all sizes. Let’s take a look at a few ways that all organizations can enhance cyber resilience.

So. Much. Data.

According to some estimates, 90 percent of the world’s data was created in the past two years, and growth is only accelerating. While storage costs have dropped as data volumes have ballooned, organizations are still running into trouble when they don’t optimize their data storage environments for factors such as cost and regulatory compliance.

By embracing solid data lifecycle management practices, you can overcome major challenges — such as cost, retrieval, disaster recovery and management — and keep up with the rapid pace of your data’s growth.

In recent months, organizations across industries have been forced to adopt new approaches throughout their entire operations. Barbers started giving outdoor haircuts and accepting contactless payments. Schools have equipped their students and instructors with laptops, sent them home and invented new methods of teaching and learning on the fly. Sports teams have even played in empty stadiums, with professional basketball players enclosing themselves in a “bubble” for a COVID-free playoff tournament.

The pressures of the coronavirus pandemic have also led to changes in many data centers. This new business environment has forced companies to embrace modernization, especially those that may have previously lagged behind on needed changes.

Here are four ways that I’m seeing savvy IT and business leaders improve their data center infrastructure and operations through digital transformation.

Next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) play a crucial role in protecting organizations against emerging threats. These advanced network security guardians can scour inbound and outbound traffic on the network edge and in the data center for signs of intrusions and malicious activity, blocking potentially dangerous data before it reaches its destination. Many organizations have deployed NGFW technology as an integral component in their cybersecurity programs.

At the same time, organizations are fine-tuning their cloud strategies. Whether they’re adopting an all-in, cloud-first strategy or selectively using cloud services as part of a hybrid offering, the reality is that sensitive business data now resides both in our own data centers and in those run by cloud partners. Cybersecurity and networking teams must be able to defend that information from attack everywhere that it resides, or attackers will seek out the weak points in an organization’s cybersecurity architecture.

Cybersecurity leaders should integrate their NGFW and cloud computing strategies to better protect organizational assets. The best way to do this is to consolidate on a single NGFW platform and use it across both cloud and on-premises network systems. NGFW vendors offer virtual appliances and software subscription models that allow for easy cloud deployment, anticipating this approach. Let’s take a look at four drivers for this consolidation.