Creating Durable Connections between Hybrid Clouds: A Step-by-Step Guide

On March 9, 2021, Taizhou, a city in the Zhejiang Province of China, was covered with clouds, and the picturesque Ruyi Bridge at Shenxianju Scenic Area was observed. The bridge was captured in a photograph taken by Wu Linwu, and this stunning view has been shared with the world.

The world of computing is all about connectedness. For more than 50 years, ever since the creation of ARPANET in 1969, humans have been linking different computer resources together to share information for the benefit of society. Starting from the earliest days of using cables and switches, there has always been a focus on creating systems that are packed with data and can easily exchange information and content.

Most people don't want to hear more about the history of network connectivity, so we can skip ahead to the connection of computing and storage resources through modern transport networks. This is commonly known as "the cloud."

As the demand for interconnection continues to increase, we are faced with the challenge of working with cloud computing instances that are spread out in multiple locations. To tackle this issue, we must create hybrid clouds using a mix of public cloud services provided by large data centers and connect them to private on-site clouds used by businesses. This need for interconnectivity is becoming even more crucial, making it an urgent priority for companies to address.

To truly progress, we must expand our understanding beyond just hybrid cloud platforms. We should also consider the concept of 'poly-cloud,' which involves spreading out an application workflow across various hybrid cloud resources. However, this topic has likely already been thoroughly discussed in the context of our future plans.

Constructing Connections: Building Branches, Bridges, and Bonds.

Currently, it's crucial that we consider more than just developing mixed cloud networks. Instead, we must focus on establishing secure connections between our clouds, which are strong enough to withstand any potential breaches, or at least capable of quickly recovering from them.

Our next consideration should go beyond just developing hybrid cloud networks. Instead, we must focus on guaranteeing that the connections between clouds are sturdy enough to withstand potential breaches. While it's impossible to completely prevent security breaches given their common occurrence, the connections between clouds should exhibit resilience and quickly recover within acceptable limits of service.

The bottom line of all this is our starting point, which is the basic nature of computing being networked. This is particularly true in the era of cloud computing.

In simpler terms, there are two types of connections to consider when it comes to hybrid and cloud environments. The first is the physical or virtual connection between different platforms that share and store data to keep the organization running smoothly. The second type of connection is more of a mental barrier between the IT worlds of infrastructure and operational resiliency. This barrier prevents organizations from effectively recovering from issues because they haven't yet shifted their mindset to consider how hybrid and cloud environments can work together more effectively. It's important for organizations to prioritize resilience over just securing data and storage, in order to make their hybrid/cloud environments more effective.

Cohesity, a company recognized for their innovative data management platform technologies and expertise in data recovery, is working to strengthen defenses in the cloud industry. In partnership with IBM, they have developed a new solution for hybrid cloud environments that focuses on data security and resilience. By merging data protection, cyber resilience, and data management technologies from both companies, IBM has introduced a new service called IBM Storage Defender that incorporates Cohesity’s data protection capabilities into its architecture and operations.

According to Phil Goodwin, who is the Research Vice President at IDC, IBM Storage Defender is a data protection solution designed to meet the needs of modern data centers. It is capable of supporting various deployment options, such as virtualization, containerization, and self-service. Goodwin also stated that this technology partnership between the two companies will help minimize data fragmentation, improve availability, and increase business resiliency in hybrid cloud environments.

What are digital safes?

Nowadays, all quality technologies include a considerable amount of automatic processes. The IBM Storage Defender system uses artificial intelligence and event monitoring across numerous storage platforms to safeguard organizations' data from various risks, such as ransomware attacks, human errors, and intentional sabotage.

The fresh IBM offering possesses a cyber-safe and hygienic chamber that comprises automated retrieval attributes. These traits aid firms in recuperating important business information if any of the aforementioned wounding network mishaps occur.

If you're interested in how it works, a cyber vault is a more advanced form of data recovery than basic tools. It's a way to collect and store data that allows an organization to recover its essential business operations. A cyber vault contains various applications and services, such as PKI, DNS, and AD. However, a cyber vault data clean room service is not about anonymizing data to share with others. Instead, it's a simple way to clean infected data or application data stream.

Mark Molyneux, the EMEA CTO at Cohesity, explained that the solution to creating secure connections is having a central control plane for managing data in different environments, whether it's on-premises, private cloud or public cloud. This control plane enforces standards for trust, accountability, access, control and audibility in all connected environments. It uses zero trust principles like encryption, multi-factor authentication and strict access controls to ensure security. Automated business processes and fully documented reports further reduce the risk of attack. Thanks to partnerships, such as with IBM, this control plane can enforce standards and processes across storage portfolios and enable customers to manage data effectively no matter where it's located.

Molyneux adds that businesses will have the ability to securely share their data with their coworkers, clients, or other external parties through a hybrid multi-cloud environment. This reliable and consistent framework ensures that data can be used flexibly across all of a business's different data stores, without creating problematic or unsecured data silos. Additionally, the structure enforces compliance, security, and reporting regulations for enhanced data safety.

Striving for an Unattainable Perfect World

According to Molyneux from Cohesity, boosting the resilience of these connections against cyber threats requires the common layer to integrate with top-notch security tools and offer an exceptional approach for detecting dubious behavior. By utilizing AI-based decision-making, it becomes faster to recognize and contain potential cyber threats, resulting in a drastic reduction of its impact.

Molyneux and his team suggest that organizations can now reduce the likelihood of their data being held for ransom or lost. They can also conveniently recover their damaged data and systems by using a clean room recovery process within their data management environment.

"They won't have to spend a lot of time cleaning up their systems before accessing the internet again. These comprehensive principles will ensure that their business lasts longer than their competitors. Although achieving an 'unbreachable' state is ideal, we strive for it by quickly recovering uninfected systems and securely retrieving data that was compromised by malicious intent, all while using robust automated controls," Molyneux concluded.

Cohesity and IBM aim to achieve the ideal cloud network, which can expand both vertically and horizontally to accommodate more capacity and application service diversity while still maintaining secure resiliency. They also want to make this dream become practical, enforceable, and cost-effective.

IBM Storage Defender now incorporates IBM Storage Protect (formerly IBM Spectrum Protect) to ensure that physical file servers, virtual environments and a variety of applications, including SaaS-based workloads, are resilient to data loss. Additionally, this upgrade includes two essential IBM Storage services, IBM Storage Fusion for seamless data orchestration and container-native storage for Red Hat OpenShift. Finally, IBM Storage Defender offers Cohesity DataProtect for backup and protection of both traditional and modern data sources on a multi-cloud platform, allowing businesses to recover swiftly across multiple environments.

This suggests that cloud storage has always been and still may be more secure than a company's personal data storage. However, as we make cloud connections more intricate, we need to focus on resilience services to prepare for potential future issues, rather than waiting until a problem arises.