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Re-Imagining Quantum’s Portfolio for Managing Unstructured Data

ActiveScale

This week, we made a significant announcement, introducing an expanded portfolio focused on classifying, managing, and protecting unstructured data across its lifecycle. The new products we introduced represent another significant step in our vision to lead in video and unstructured data solutions and represent a key shift in focus from ‘storing’ data to ‘managing’ data. 

Accelerating Data Growth, Data Movement, and Use of Hybrid- and Multi-Cloud

Our customers are dealing with massive unstructured data sprawl – video, digital images, and other forms of unstructured data are growing by 30-60% per year. Many of our customers have millions or billions of files and lack visibility into what they have, and where it lives. This lack of visibility combined with the velocity of data growth is putting pressure on infrastructure costs and forcing companies to rethink infrastructure designs. 

At the same time, the COVID pandemic has resulted in permanent changes to the workforce, driving more data movement (between edge / core / cloud), and an acceleration in the adoption of hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud. The emergence of AI and machine learning techniques provide new tools to leverage this data, and is also driving new lifecycle and ‘workflow’ requirements for this data, including a desire to preserve and protect this data and keep it accessible for decades. 

All of this adds up to what we see as the key challenge facing our customers in this decade – how to unlock business value out of all of this data, and manage this data across the entire multi-decade lifecycle of this data.

Manage Unstructured Data, Across Any Workload, End-to-End with Quantum

Our expanded portfolio can help our customers tackle this challenge, starting with new ways to classify and manage data across its lifecycle, for any workload, end-to-end. This expanded portfolio is depicted and summarized below:

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The new announcements include:

  • New ways to visualize, automate, and purposefully place data, with Quantum’s All-Terrain File System (ATFS) , a next-gen storage platform targeted at the NAS market. 
  • StorNext 7 :  The latest version of Quantum’s high-performance file system, for high throughput low-latency workloads. StorNext 7 introduces new features like file system pools that optimize the use of NVMe for production storage, as well as new ways to program and manage the file system.
  • An expanded ActiveScale object storage portfolio , including a new 3-node object storage system, object lock to protect against ransomware, and small object aggregation to improve the performance of small objects.

Lastly, all of these new offerings are available on a capacity basis, with new all-inclusive software licensing that aligns our licensing with the value we are delivering to customers. 

We look forward to engaging with customers and partners on this expanded portfolio – to learn more, please register for our VirtualQ I Transform event where we will be showcasing all of these new solutions.

To view our Partner blog, click here

Thinking of Paying Ransomware Hackers? You May Face Sanctions.

CMMA Blog

If ransomware wasn’t already causing IT professionals loss of sleep at night, a new advisory recently issued, just might. The U.S. Dept of Treasury has issued an advisory that focuses on the sanction risks associated with the ransomware payments related to malicious cyber activities. This means that not only do IT professionals need to ensure their network is secure, but if their organization solely relies on cyber insurance to get back to business quickly, they’ll need to be sure their company and their insurer or financial institution negotiating on their behalf are not funding terrorists organizations. The question is, how do companies and negotiators know who they’re dealing with? They don’t really know. Companies and their negotiators are still at risk of being held responsible regardless if the parties knew or had reason to know.

Making payments emboldens cyber criminals and perpetuates this vicious cycle of attacks and payments. Did you know there is a ransomware-as-a-service (RAS) offering and a help desk somewhere in the dark web? When your company pays the ransom, it is  funding these malicious operations. To protect your network, you pay top dollars to equip your data center with the latest in data protection. Next, you insure with the best cyber insurance policies available. All of this is good, but relying on cyber insurance to get back to business after a cyber event has become a national security issue. Enterprise organizations, whether private sector or government, need to step up their business continuity plans or they may risk violating OFAC regulations according to the U.S. Treasury Department. At the risk of sounding like a broken record (I’ve  blogged about this before), organizations need to turn the page on this chapter. Start by:

  1. Being pro-active in your data protection strategy – protecting your network comes in layers.
  2. Securing with an offline “air-gapped” copy (supplemental insurance).
  3. Organizations need to “unlearn” relying on cyber insurance to get back to business quickly.

Implementing point one and two from above will largely reduce your chances of having to pay ransomware, because you will be prepared with time-tested strategies that will help you get back to business quickly. For example, a solid backup strategy will include keeping a copy of your data disk (hot data), tape (offline) and offsite like the cloud (offsite). Put very simply, follow the backup rule of 3-2-1-1 , which means: 3 copies of your data, 2 different media types, one offsite, and one offline. The third point is behavioral, and it starts at the top by re-setting policies to get back online.

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The volume of ransom payments will continue to increase rapidly unless victim behavior changes. All reports point to more aggressive cyber spying and targeted attacks with insidious methods that bypass behavioral algorithms used by cyber software companies. If criminals have the funds, they will find a way to penetrate your network and disable your online backups. Quantum has designed a solution to protect organizations against ransomware that enables faster recovery. This offers a true air-gapped ransomware protection with an offline, in-library vault for onsite backups. The benefits are:

  • Archive, on-site, long-term vaulting, replaces external shelf storage
  • Backup, short-term vault prior to sending offsite
  • Removes the need of manual handling tapes
  • Recover from an off-line copy in minutes when your online copy is compromised

Let’s remember, a virus cannot bypass a physical barrier formed between your data and the network. It is and will continue to be the most cost-effective form of ransomware protection. As you evaluate ransomware data protection strategies, think about the losses associated with a successful attack to your organization: revenue, clients, reputation, and more. Increase your awareness. You could possibly be sponsoring foreign cyber-terrorism. A small investment can reap a great return.

Article cited: https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/126/ofac_ransomware_advisory_10012020_1.pdf )

To view our Partner blog, click here

This Week at the Q

Archive

Today sees the last day of Quantum’s amazing ‘Summer Hours’ program, but I’m getting ‘This Week at the Q’ live before heading out to enjoy it! It’s been wonderful to enjoy every other Friday off over the summer, and spend some time with my kids on our camping adventures!  So for this week’s Top 5 happenings…

1. We’ve been hearing from customers about the need to protect and retain data for decades, and in many cases the need for a ‘forever archive’ or ‘100-year archive’. Couple this with massive growth in unstructured data, and the need to be able to search and analyze this data, and building a modern data archiving strategy has become a key strategy for enterprises. This week, industry expert Fred Moore of Horison Information Strategies joined us on “The Anatomy of a 100-Year Archive for Unstructured Data” to discuss the scale of unstructured data growth, the applications fueling archive requirements, and the anatomy of the 100-year archive enterprises should consider. The replay is available here .

2. Like the webinar? We have a new white paper to go with it! Read “Anatomy of the 100-Year Archive” , by Fred Moore of Horison Information Strategies, to learn when data reaches archival status, data classification guidelines, the role of blocks, files and objects, and the various capabilities that enable an archive for the ages.

blog 100 year archive wp

3. Another topic we’re hearing from customers more and more, is ransomware protection. For every ransomware attack we see in the news, there are hundreds of others that don’t get reported. Virus strains and cyber criminals have become increasingly insidious in their attempts to penetrate networks and take control of all digital assets, including backups. A virus cannot bypass a physical barrier formed between your data and the network nor a logical barrier based on data immutability. A solution doesn’t have to be expensive or complex to be effective.  Register for our upcoming live webinar on October 22, “Protect Your Data with a Layered Ransomware Approach.”

4. Having a contingency plan in the event of unforeseen operational disruptions is good business. Whether it’s to deal with the current COVID-19 pandemic or in anticipation of a potential natural disaster, our customers build continuity plans with the technology needed to keep business operations afloat, as well as ensuring employees are trained in using remote working technologies. Quantum’s Diana Salazar covers the “Top Three Data Continuity Techniques Businesses Need to Adopt Now” in her recently published byline in Data Centre Dynamics.

5. We love hosting industry friends at our Executive Briefing Center! It was great to spend time with Philippe Nicolas, founder of Coldago Research and Storage Newsletter editor, in our Englewood, Colorado offices to tour our labs and talk roadmap. So good to start reconnecting in person again, even if we are masked up and touring 6 feet apart!

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Leave a comment if there are topics you’d like to see added to our weekly top 5 happenings!

Natasha

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The Resurgence of LTO Tape Storage

Archive Storage

LTO tape storageOver the past month, I’ve been lucky enough to spend a lot of time out in the field – connecting with a lot of interesting customers at industry events and spending quality time with Quantum’s regional sales teams around the globe. One common theme across all of this seems to be a resurgence in interest in LTO technology, based on two dynamics and two use cases.

To view our Partner blog, click here