How to Protect Data in a Hybrid Cloud Environment

Types of Data Protection

In this blog, we explain how the Morro Data CloudNAS, with its hybrid-cloud architecture, mitigates exposure.

There are three categories when it comes to data protection:

1. Physical Data Protection

Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) benefit greatly from the scale, building security, and monitoring that public data centers offer. Achieving the same capability is generally beyond the resources of anything but the largest enterprises.

Morro Data is partnered with and offers object storage from AWS S3, Wasabi, and Backblaze at a range of affordable price points. These providers met numerous compliance standards, with .gov available through Amazon, and offer eleven-9’s of reliability. Morro Data supports multiple AWS regions allowing customers to store data in the region. Also, Backblaze have announced their own EU data center plans.

With Morro Data CloudNAS, the files are accessed via an on-premises CacheDrive through a regular NAS filer interface. By limiting file access to the local LAN, an additional layer of protection if obtained. The small form -factor makes it easy to secure the device physically. CloudNAS permissions can be set by location, adding to the security. For example, accounting files may only be accessed by the finance team in the corporate office, while engineering files can be limited to engineering labs, etc.

2. Protection from Device Failure

The Morro Data CloudNAS authoritative store is the cloud object store that benefits from cloud security, reliability, and scale. By keeping all data in the cloud, there is inherent protection against fire, theft, and storm damage. CloudNAS fully supports selectable versioning which provides protection against inadvertent user file deletion and ransomware. Corrupted or deleted files can be recovered from an earlier version kept safely in the cloud.

The local on-premises CacheDrive is a non-critical device. If it fails, the content can be quickly restored from the cloud – for more information see the Instant Disaster Recovery video.

3. Protection from Data Loss and Breach

Most breaches are incurred through human behavior. More files available on more devices increases exposure from device loss and shadow IT. With CloudNAS, critical files can be contained within the company and set to be only accessible from the CacheDrive through the LAN. Files shared from within CloudNAS provide extra control and visibility. Morro Data recently implemented Azure Active Directory, enabling IT to manage CloudNAS permissions through the employees’ Office 365 credentials. Another addition has been expanded Audit capability that gives IT Admins greater visibility into system usage, all managed via a single web UI. No matter how many sites, locations, or users, IT always has full visibility.

The original Network World article can be viewed here Protecting data in a hybrid cloud environment.

Video – How to Keep Data Secure?