New DC Trends Bring Security under Spotlight

The growth in data centres, coupled with increased IT expenditure among enterprises, has brought about the need to have a robust security practice owing to increasing new age threats.

The industry has observed a significant rise in IT spending on security solutions to safeguard vital data and critical IT infrastructure, which is indirectly shaping the security domain.

Some of the major factors driving this need for better security are increasing data traffic and network connections, virtualisation of data centres, increasing cyber-attacks with physical attacks and insider threats. But is this all?

Some of the major factors driving this need for better security are increasing data traffic and network connections, virtualisation of data centres, increasing cyber-attacks with physical attacks and insider threats

Growing security concerns with SMBsNew age security threats impacting data centres
As an increasing number of organisations house critical systems with data centres, they have become the nerve centre of an organisation making data centre security a top priority for most companies today. As a testimony to this effect, the global data centre security market which was estimated to be $6.46 billion in 2013 is expected to grow to $13.77 billion in 2018. This represents a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.3 per cent from 2013 to 2018. Currently, BFSI is well ahead, being the largest adopter for data centre security solutions followed by Telecom and IT.

Another impactful contribution to the security solution investment market would be through Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs). SMBs get more mainstream in their adoption of comprehensive security, and most often, are likely to have money moving through wire transfers, vendor payments, and customer payments; these, along with their knowledge-intensive nature, makes them potentially vulnerable to cyber-threats.

Many smaller businesses often lack budget and expertise, and typically have liberal, rarely enforced policies for use of personal devices, in-office Wi-Fi access, installation of unauthorised apps, thereby exposing themselves to huge threats.

Cloud impacting NextGen DCs
With the blurring of boundaries between physical, virtual and public/private cloud, organisations are on an evolutionary curve towards next-generation data centres. Resultantly, they will face the reality of securing data that moves between servers, storage, and networking resources (physical and virtual) of next-generation data centres.

BYOD invites new age threats and is therefore compelling IT managers to perceive solutions such as data loss prevention, network access control, internal intrusion prevention systems, authentication system

BYOD, another booming IT trend, invites new age threats and is therefore compelling IT managers to perceive solutions such as data loss prevention, network access control, internal intrusion prevention systems, authentication system, internal firewalls, securing Wi-Fi, etc. A smarter enterprise thus seeks a single security solution for issues related to BYOD. Firms need to rebuild security structure to fit in BYOD while being watchdogs of IT security and compliance.

Defence mechanisms
To combat the threat of advanced malware, many organisations are relying on their legacy security products or using stand-alone malware products that are not integrated with the rest of the environment. Hence, there is a need to adopt advanced threat defence solutions to respond to attacks faster and seamlessly move from analysis to protection and resolution.

Virtualisation fuelled risks
While virtualisation brings in significant benefits for organisations, there are security challenges to be addressed in storage virtualisation, server virtualisation, etc. Identity is becoming the new perimeter; therefore, it needs more clarity on information access management. 

Even though there is a need for integrated physical as well as logical security solutions for data centre security, varied security tools need to be independently implemented to secure the facility. Major companies are trying to integrate both the security solutions on a single platform for ease of implementation and to reduce the total cost of ownership while ensuring security compliance and regulatory policies.

Data centre security solutions and service providers look forward to gaining a better competitive advantage in this growing market, thereby creating new solutions and intelligent and integrated security platforms for securing the data centres. These solutions providers are enabling organisations reduce the risk of improper access by privileged users, through either careless or malicious actions by governing employee and partner access. They also help ensure that your confidential information is properly classified and protected from improper use or disclosure--thereby helping organisations avoid reputational damage that can result from information theft.

Today’s data centres are moving fast on data acquisition and with acquiring new networks. All this is creating a new breed of data centres that need security more than they need anything else. Creating a more agile, flexible, scalable, and cost-efficient data centre security strategy is a compelling venture. The need is to relook at appropriate strategies of IT infrastructure in order to gain greater efficiency, agility, and business continuity.

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