ST2401

FEATURE:
FEATURE: 2024 PREDICTIONS
"These advanced storage systems will prioritise
continuous replication to air-gapped storage, effectively
isolating critical data from potential cyber-attacks. This
strategy will be key in safeguarding against
ransomware and targeted cyber-attacks, ensuring data
integrity and business continuity even during cyber
incidents."- Aron Brand, CTERA
"However, all of this hype means that for some
organisations, adoption of this technology is
more of a matter of 'keeping up with the Jones'
rather than because it is truly the best solution
for a specific problem they are trying to solve.
As a result, we're likely to see a lot of money
invested in failed generative AI projects. It's the
shiny new object and many CIOs and other
senior leaders may feel pressured to be able to
say they have a generative AI program in
place. The key to limiting these failed projects
will lie in really ensuring that your organisation
understands the specific reason for using
generative AI, that it's tied to a defined business
outcome and there's a method established for
measuring the success of the investment."
PROTECT AND SURVIVE
The other topic on almost everyone's lips for
2024 was, as we mentioned, cyber attacks
and data protection. "IT admins will need to
rise to new challenges in data protection with
increased vigilance, for example, by improving
infrastructure visibility with continuous IT
monitoring tools, and strengthening access
and identity controls across the infrastructure,"
says Sergei Serdyuk of Nakivo. "Organisations
that achieve ransomware resiliency in 2024
will have successfully applied anti-ransomware
measures to backup data, including tiering
and immutable storage, as well as anomaly
detection tools to detect dormant malware in
backup data."
Jim McGann of Index Engines describes how
storage vendors are bolstering their platforms
with advanced cybersecurity features: "Going
beyond conventional measures like
immutability and authentication, these
enhancements aim to restore data to
operational status while minimising loss. This
entails continuous data inspection, ensuring
integrity, reporting on any signs of corruption
in real time, and quickly restoring the last
known unaltered version of data post-attack.
This convergence of security and storage,
'cyberstorage,' is emerging and gaining
traction, not just in 2024 but for the
foreseeable future."
Nasuni's Jim Liddle comments: "Preventing
the theft, encryption, misuse, or exposure of
sensitive data will remain a daily concern for
organisations indefinitely. Multi-layer
protection has quickly become a matter of
hygiene and even companies that invested in
sophisticated, global ransomware protection
products will need a belt and braces
approach in the form of network, application,
and access security, coupled with rapid data
recovery solutions."
We will start to see storage vendors pivot
towards developing 'cyber-hardened' storage
solutions in response to the escalating cyber
threat landscape, says Ctera's Aron Brand:
"These advanced storage systems will
prioritise continuous replication to airgapped
storage, effectively isolating critical
data from potential cyber-attacks. This
strategy will be key in safeguarding against
ransomware and targeted cyber-attacks,
ensuring data integrity and business
continuity even during cyber incidents."
Simultaneously, predictive threat detection
powered by - you guessed it - AI, will
become integral to these storage solutions,
says Brand: "AI's advanced anomaly
recognition capabilities will enable early
detection of potential threats, offering a
proactive defence mechanism. This will be
complemented by built-in disaster recovery
features, ensuring swift response and
recovery in the event of a breach."
In recent years, the tech industry has made
tremendous strides in protecting data against
all manner of threats, including increasingly
destructive malware and ransomware, argues
Giorgio Regni of Scality, exemplified by the
rise of immutability in data protection and
data storage solutions, especially for backup
data: "While data protection and restoration
are a major cornerstone that serves as a
critical last line of defence in a layered
cybersecurity infrastructure, new
advancements in AI-generated ransomware
detection capabilities will emerge in data
protection and storage solutions in 2024."
12 STORAGE Jan/Feb 2024
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