Our new SNIA Compute, Memory, and Storage webcast focuses on a hot topic – storage-based cryptocurrency. Blockchains, cryptocurrency, and the internet of markets are working to transform finance, wealth, safety, digital security, and trust. Storage-based cryptocurrencies had a breakout year in 2021. Proof of Space and Time is a new blockchain consensus that uses storage capacity to secure the blockchain. Decentralized file storage will enable alternatives to hyperscale data centers for hosting files and objects. Understanding the TCO of a storage system and optimizing the utilization of the storage hardware is critical in scaling these systems. Join our speakers, Jonmichael Hands of Chia Network and Eli Tiomkin of NGD Systems, for this discussion on how a new approach of auto-plotting SSDs combined with computational storage can lower the total TCO. Registration is free for this webcast on Tuesday, February 15 at 10:00 am Pacific time. Click on the link to register and see you there! https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/663/526154 The post Why Cryptocurrency and Computational Storage? first appeared on SNIA Compute, Memory and Storage Blog.

Ransomware is a malware attack that uses a variety of methods to prevent or limit an organization or individual from accessing their IT systems and data, either by locking the system's screen, or by encrypting files until a ransom is paid, usually in cryptocurrency for reasons of anonymity.

By encrypting these files and demanding a ransom payment for the decryption key, the malware places organizations in a position where paying the ransom is the easiest and most cost-effective way to regain access to their files. It should be noted, however, that paying the ransom does not guarantee that users will get the decryption key required to regain access to the infected system or files.

In some instances, the perpetrators may steal an organization’s information and demand an additional payment in return for not disclosing the information to authorities, competitors or the public, something that would inflict reputational damage to the organization.

The cybercriminals who commit ransomware cybercrimes are now becoming so proficient at what they do that they use artificial intelligence in analyzing the victim’s environment to ensure that recovering files is extremely difficult if not impossible. Additionally, cybercriminals are offering RaaS (ransomware-as-a-service) to organized crime and government agencies to help them launch an attack while they reap the benefits. That may explain why large organizations, which theoretically have large sums of money to pay ransoms, are currently more likely to be targeted than individuals.

However, the landscape is changing, and ransomware is no longer just about a financial ransom with attacks being aimed at public services, utilities and infrastructure undermining public confidence.

Is Ransomware different from malware?

Ransomware is a cyber-attack where the sole purpose is financial gain. The cybercriminals ensure a path to a decryption key is available that they can sell to victims. In many cases however, the decryption key does not help or even partially help depending on the level of damage incurred by the organization trying to recover before giving up and agreeing to pay the ransom. On the other hand, the malware’s purpose is to damage the victim organization where there is no decryption key, or the malware simply encrypts or deletes the victim’s systems beyond recovery and there is no demand for a ransom.

How does ransomware work?

Ransomware can be unwittingly downloaded by visiting malicious or compromised websites or by downloading from malicious pages or advertisements. It can also be delivered as an attachment or a link in an email which is known as a phishing attack.

Once in the system, ransomware can either lock the computer screen or encrypt predetermined files. The user will see a full-screen image or notification displayed on an infected system's screen, which states the method used to prevent the victim from using their system and will indicate how the user can pay the ransom. Alternatively, the ransomware will prevent access to potentially critical or valuable files like documents and spreadsheets.

1. Ransomware is downloaded from malicious/compromised site or via an email link or attachment.
2. Computer screen is locked or files are encrypted.
3. Notification displayed with information on how to pay ransom to unlock computer

Implications for data protection methods and/or disaster recovery

Ransomware attacks can sometimes use what is called a “Trojan”, where there is a time lag between the first system infected and the detonation (activation of malicious code). During that time, the malicious code copies itself to all connected systems to ensure maximum damage to the victim’s environment. Depending on the frequency of replication between the production and disaster recovery environment, the malicious code will use the replication to infect the Disaster Recovery (DR) environment. For example, if the victim’s disaster recovery uses synchronous replication the malicious code will propagate immediately to the DR site, and once the malicious code is activated, both the production and DR environments will be locked.

Moreover, if there is a time lag between infection and activation, the malicious code will likely be included in the backup. Additionally, in most cases, the cybercriminal will study the victim’s environment to understand the backup retention policy and extend the time lag between infection and activation to ensure all backups are infected. Once all backup generations are infected, the cybercriminal will have full control over the victim’s environment.

So rather than acting as a data protection procedure, disaster recovery can help spread the malicious code and any recovery/backup data will be equally affected along with production data.  

How to mitigate and recover from a ransomware attack

Businesses are now beginning to realize that it is no longer a question of if they will be attacked, but when. Given the scope and sophistication of current threats, what can businesses realistically do to prevent such attacks, or recover from them?

Payment of the ransom – As previously stated, depending on the motive for the attack, paying the ransom does not necessarily guarantee that the organization will get the decryption key required to regain access to the infected system or files. However, it is understandable that many organizations are placed in the unenviable position where paying the ransom is the easiest and most cost-effective path. To try and dissuade businesses from taking this path the US Treasury have issued guidelines that strongly discourages the payment of ransoms or extortion demands, with possible sanctions for businesses that do. They are instead encouraging businesses to adopt the CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) recommendations and to report incidents to the CISA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Cyber insurance - Some businesses have taken the approach of accepting they we will be attacked and lose data, and that cyber insurance will cover any loss. There is increasing evidence that the insurance companies are unwilling to meet those claims, especially where there is no motivation or strategy for risk management or at least minimum steps towards prevention of the threat.

Best practices - As an example of how to deal with a ransomware threat, CISA has issued a series of recommendations to protect networks from a ransomware attack:

1. Educate your personnel. Improve the workforce awareness through training and testing so that staff understand they are a target and are aware of the nature of the threat and how it is delivered.
2. Take preventative measures:
   • Risk analysis: Conduct a cybersecurity risk analysis of the organization
   • Incident response: Develop an incident response plan and exercise it
   • Vulnerability patching: Implement appropriate and timely patching of operating systems, software and firmware
   • Email: Enable strong spam filters to prevent phishing emails from reaching the end users and authenticate inbound email and prevent email spoofing. Scan all incoming and outgoing emails to detect threats and filter executable files from reaching end users.
   • Firewalls: Configure firewalls to block access to known malicious IP addresses.
   • Anti-virus: Set anti-virus and anti-malware programs to conduct regular scans automatically.
   • Access controls: Manage the use of privileged accounts based on the principle of least privilege
   • Disable macros: Disable all macro scripts from office files transmitted via email.
   • Implement software restriction policies: SRP or other controls can prevent programs from executing from common ransomware locations, such as temporary folders supporting popular Internet browsers
   • Application safe-listing: Only allows systems to execute programs known and permitted by a security policy.
   • Operating Systems: Execute operating system environments or specific programs in a virtualized environment.
   • Logical and physical separation: Categorize data based on organizational value and implement physical and logical separation of networks and data for different organizational units.
   • Consider implementing “Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA)” in the corporate network to limit or even challenge the lateral network traffic and consequently challenge the spread of malware across all systems.
   • Penetration testing: Test the security of systems and the ability to defend against attacks.
3. What to do if you discover Ransomware

The next steps are to mitigate the threat through the processes of containment, eradication, and recovery. Containment means isolating the infection and so that it does not cause anything more to happen. Eradication means to eliminate and destroy all the malware software instances. Recovery tends to mean recovery from uncontaminated offline backups to regain the integrity and confidence.

The final step is to articulate the lessons learned and apply them back at the incident planning process in a cyclical manner.

• Isolate the infected computer immediately. Infected systems should be removed from the network as soon as possible to prevent ransomware from attacking network or share drives.
• Isolate or power-off affected devices that have not yet been completely corrupted. This may afford more time to clean and recover data, contain damage, and prevent worsening conditions.
• Immediately secure backup data or systems by taking them offline. Ensure backups are free of malware.
• Contact law enforcement immediately. 
• If available, collect and secure partial portions of the ransomed data that might exist.
• If possible, change all online account passwords and network passwords after removing the system from the network. Furthermore, change all system passwords once the malware is removed from the system.
• Delete operating system configuration settings and files to stop the program from loading.
• Implement your security incident response and business continuity plan. Ideally, organizations will ensure they have appropriate backups, so their response to an attack will simply be to restore the data from a known clean backup. Having an immutable data backup can eliminate the need to pay a ransom to recover data.

Reference Material

• Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Guidance, Ransomware Guide, September 2020
• SNIA Data Protection & Privacy Committee

Definitions

Malware, short for malicious software, is a blanket term for viruses, worms, Trojans, and other harmful software that attackers use to gain access to sensitive information illegally. Software is identified as malware based on its intended nefarious use (such as identity theft or even total data destruction), rather than a particular technique or technology used to build it.

SNIA Dictionary Definitions

            malware [Permalink]

            [Computer System]  [Data Security] 

            Malicious software designed specifically to damage or disrupt a system, attacking            confidentiality, integrity and/or availability. [ISO/IEC 27033-1]

            Examples are a computer virus, computer worm, Trojan horse, spyware, adware, ransomware, or scareware.

            ransomware [Permalink]

            [Data Security] 

            A type of malicious software designed to block access to data until funds are paid.

Everyone is familiar with the term “Cloud” but it’s still worth asking “What is Cloud?”  It can be defined as “networked computing facilities providing remote data storage and processing services via the Internet.” And while that definition is simple (if a little wordy!), the real-world of cloud is complex, dynamic, and ever growing. That’s why we’re hosting this series which will include brief 15-minute discussions on cloud and cloud related technologies:

• What is Cloud – terminology
• Cloud application architecture
• Cloud data privacy & security
• Cloud provider storage offerings

At this first talk “What is Cloud?” on March 2, 2022, the SNIA Cloud Storage Technologies Initiative will present a brief history of “The Cloud.” If you are a cloud expert, these sessions might not be for you, but for everyone else, this series of short talks might clear up a lot of questions you may have. Join us for a discussion on:

• Common Cloud Terminology
• How all the parts work together
• Why the cloud and what it’s used for
• Example use cases
• SNIA Educational resources on Cloud

I encourage you to register. It will be informative, clear up any confusion you may have, and only take 15 minutes. We promise!

Everyone is familiar with the term “Cloud” but it’s still worth asking “What is Cloud?”  It can be defined as “networked computing facilities providing remote data storage and processing services via the Internet.” And while that definition is simple (if a little wordy!), the real-world of cloud is complex, dynamic, and ever growing. That’s why we’re hosting this series which will include brief 15-minute discussions on cloud and cloud related technologies:

• What is Cloud – terminology
• Cloud application architecture
• Cloud data privacy & security
• Cloud provider storage offerings

At this first talk “What is Cloud?” on March 2, 2022, the SNIA Cloud Storage Technologies Initiative will present a brief history of “The Cloud.” If you are a cloud expert, these sessions might not be for you, but for everyone else, this series of short talks might clear up a lot of questions you may have. Join us for a discussion on:

• Common Cloud Terminology
• How all the parts work together
• Why the cloud and what it’s used for
• Example use cases
• SNIA Educational resources on Cloud

I encourage you to register. It will be informative, clear up any confusion you may have, and only take 15 minutes. We promise!

At our recent SNIA Networking Storage Forum (NSF) webcast “Revving up Storage for Automotive” our expert presenters, Ryan Suzuki and John Kim, discussed storage implications as vehicles are turning into data centers on wheels. If you missed the live event, it is available on-demand together with the presentations slides. Our audience asked several interesting questions on this quickly evolving industry. Here are John and Ryan’s answers to them. Q: What do you think the current storage landscape is missing to support the future of IoV [Internet of Vehicles]? Are there any identified cases of missing features from storage (edge/cloud) which are preventing certain ideas from being implemented and deployed? [Ryan] I would have to say no, currently there are no missing features in edge or cloud storage that are preventing ideas from being implemented. If anything, more vehicles need to adopt both wireless connectivity and the associated systems (IVI, ADAS/AD) to truly realize IoV. This will take some time as these technologies are just beginning to be offered in vehicles today. There are 200 million vehicles on the road in the US while in a typical year 17 million new vehicles are sold. [John] My personal opinion is no—the development of the IoV is currently limited by a combination of AI training power in the datacenter, compute power within the vehicles, wireless bandwidth (such as waiting for the broader rollout of 5G), and the development of software for new vehicles. Possibly the biggest limit is the slow rate of replacement of existing non-connected vehicles with IoV-capable. The IoV will definitely require more and possibly smarter storage in the datacenter, cloud and edge, but that storage is not what is limiting or blocking the faster rollout of IoV. Q: Talking from a long-term view, is on-board storage the way to go or will we be shifting to storage at the network edge given high bandwidth network like 5G is flourishing? [Ryan] On-board storage will remain in vehicles and continue to grow because vehicles must be fully operational from a driving perspective even if a wireless connection (5G or otherwise) cannot be established. For example, systems in the vehicle required for safe driving (ADAS/AD) must operate independent of an outside connection. In addition, data collected during operation may need to be stored in the event of a slow or intermittent connection to avoid loss of data. Q: What is the anticipated hourly storage needed? At one point this was in the multiple TB range. [John] HD video (1080p at 30 frames per second) requires from 2-4 GB/hour and 4K video requires 15-20 GB/hour, so if a car has 6 HD cameras and a few additional sensors being recorded, the hourly storage need for a normal ADAS would be 8-30 GB/hour. However, a car being used to train, develop or test ADAS/AD systems would collect multiple video angles, more types of data and higher-resolution video/audio/radar/lidar/performance data, possibly requiring 1-5 TB per hour. Q: Do you know of any specific storage requirement, design etc. in the car or the backend, specifically for meeting the UNECE 155/156? It’s specifically for software update, hence the storage question [Ryan] Currently, there are no specific automotive requirements for storage products to meet UNECE 155/156. This regulation was developed by a regional commission of the UN focused on Europe. While security is a concern and will grow as cars become more connected, in my opinion, an international regulation/standard needs to be agreed upon to ensure a consistent level of security for all vehicles in all regions. Q: Does automotive storage need to be ASIL-B or ASIL-D certified? [Ryan] Individual storage components are not ASIL certified as the certification is completed at the system level. For example, systems like vision ADAS, anti-lock braking, and power steering (self-steering), require ASIL-D certification, the highest compliance level. Typically, components that mention a specific level of ASIL compliance have been evaluated at a system hardware level. Q. What type of endurance does automotive storage need, given the average or 99% percentile lifespan of a modern car? [Ryan] It depends on how the storage device is being used. If the device is used for code/application storage such as the AI Inference, the endurance requirement will be relatively low as it only needs to support periodic updates of the code and updates of high-definition maps. Storage devices used for data logging on the other hand, require a higher endurance level as data is written during vehicle operation, uploaded to the cloud later typically through a WiFi connection and then erased. This cycle is repeated every time the vehicle is driven. Q. Will 5G change how much data vehicles can send and receive while driving? [John] Eventually yes, because 5G allows higher wireless/cellular data rates. However, 5G antennas also have shorter range, so more of those antennas and base stations are required for coverage. This means 5G will roll out first in urban centers and will take time to roll out in more rural areas, and vehicles that drive to rural areas will not be able to count on always using the higher 5G data rates. 5G will also be used to connect vehicles in defined environments such as a school campus, bus/truck depot, factory, warehouse or police station. For example, a robot operating only within a warehouse could count on having 5G access all the time, and a bus, police car or ADAS/AD training car could store terabytes of data in the vehicle and upload it easily over a local 5G connection once it returns to the garage or station. Q. In autonomous driving, are all the AI compute capabilities and AI rules or training stored inside each car? Or are AD cars relying somewhat on AI running somewhere in the cloud? [John] Most of the AI rules for actually driving (AI inferencing) must be stored inside each car because there isn’t enough time to consult a computer (or additional rules) stored in the cloud and use them for real-time driving decisions. The training data and machine learning training algorithms used to create the training rules are typically stored in the cloud or in a corporate data center. Updated training rules, navigation data, and vehicle system software updates can all be stored in the cloud and pushed out to vehicles on a periodic basis. Traffic or weather data can be stored in the cloud and sent to vehicles (or to phones in vehicles) as often as several times each minute. Q. Does the chip shortage mean car companies are putting less storage inside new cars than they think they should? [Ryan] Not from what I have seen.  For vehicles currently in production, the designs are locked and with a limited number of vehicles OEMs can produce, they have shifted production to higher-end models to maximize profit. This means the systems in these vehicles may actually use higher amounts of storage to support the features. For new vehicle development, storage capacities continue to grow in order to enable new applications including IVI and ADAS. [John] Generally no, the manufacturers are still putting in whatever amount of storage they originally planned for each vehicle and simply limiting the number of vehicles built based on the supply of semiconductors, and the limitations tend to be across several types of chips, not just memory or storage chips. It’s possible in some cars they are using older, different, or more expensive storage components than originally planned in order to get around chip shortages, but the total amount of storage is unlikely to decrease. Q. Can typical data storage inside a car be upgraded or expanded? [Ryan] Due to the shock and vibration vehicles encounter during operation, storage devices typically come in a BGA package and are soldered onto a PCB for higher reliability. Increasing the density would require replacing the PCB for a new board with a higher capacity storage device. Some new vehicles are installing external USB ports that can use USB drives to store non-critical information such as security camera footage while the vehicle is parked. Q. Given the critical nature of AD systems or even engine control software, do car makers do anything special with their storage to ensure high availability or high uptime? How does a car deal with storage failure? [Ryan] In the case of autonomous driving, this is a safety critical system and the reliability is examined at a system level. In an AD system, there are typically multiple SOCs not only to handle the complex computational tasks, but also for redundancy. In the event the main SOC system fails, another SOC can take over to ensure the vehicle continues to operate safely. From a storage standpoint, each SOC typically uses its own storage device. Q. You know those black boxes they put in planes (or cars) to record data in case of a crash? Those boxes are designed to survive crashes. Why can’t they build the whole car out of the same stuff? [Ryan] While this would provide an ultimate level of safety for passengers, it is unfortunately not economically feasible. To scale a black box with the approximate volume of a 2.5” hard drive to over 120 ft³ (interior passenger and cargo volume) of a standard mid-size vehicle would be cost prohibitive. [John] It would be too expensive and possibly too heavy to build the entire car like a “black box” data recorder. Also, a black box just needs to be designed to make one small component or data storage very survivable while the entire car needs to act as an impact protection and energy absorption system that maximizes the survivability of the occupants during and after an accident. Q. What prevents hackers from breaching automotive systems and modifying the car’s software or deleting critical data? [John] Automotive systems are typically designed with fewer remote access paths and tighter security to make it harder to breach the system. Usually, the systems require encrypted keys from the vehicle manufacturer to access the systems remotely, and some updates or data deletion may be possible only with physical access to the car’s data port. Also, certain data may be stored on flash or persistent memory within the vehicle to make it harder to delete. Still even with these precautions, a mistake or bug in the vehicle’s software or firmware could allow a hacker to gain unauthorized access in rare cases. Q. Would most automotive storage run as block, file, or object storage? [John] Most of the local storage inside a vehicle and anything storing standardized databases or small logs would probably be block storage, as that typically is easy to use for local storage and/or structured data. Data center storage for AI or ADAS training, vehicle design, or aerodynamic/crash/FEA simulation is usually file-based storage to allow for easy sharing and technical computing across multiple servers. Any archived data for vehicle design, training, simulation, videos, telemetry that is stored outside the vehicle is most likely to be object storage because these are typically larger files with unstructured data that don’t change after creation and need to be retained for a long time. Q. Does automotive storage need to use redundancy like RAID or erasure coding? [Ryan] No, current single-device storage solutions with built-in ECC provide the required reliability.  Implementing a RAID system or erasure encoding would require multiple drives significantly driving up the cost.  Electronics currently account for 40% of a new vehicle’s total cost and it is expected to continue growing.  Switching from an existing solution that meets system requirements to a storage solution that is multiple times the cost is not practical.

The convergence of 5G, Edge Compute and Artificial Intelligence (AI) promise to be catalyst for continued digital transformation. For many industries, it will be a game-changer in term of how business in conducted. On January 27, 202, the SNIA Cloud Storage Technologies Initiative (CSTI) will take on this topic at our live webcast “5G Industrial Private Networks and Edge Data Pipelines.” Advanced 5G is specifically designed to address the needs of verticals with capabilities like enhanced mobile broadband (emBB), ultra-reliable low latency communications (urLLC), and massive machine type communications (mMTC), to enable near real-time distributed intelligence applications. For example, automated guided vehicle and autonomous mobile robots (AGV/AMRs), wireless cameras, augmented reality for connected workers, and smart sensors across many verticals ranging from healthcare and immersive media, to factory automation. Using this data, manufacturers are looking to maximize operational efficiency and process optimization by leveraging AI and machine learning. To do that, they need to understand and effectively manage the sources and trustworthiness of timely data. In this presentation, our SNIA experts will take a deep dive into how:

• Edge can be defined and the current state of the industry
• Industrial Edge is being transformed
• 5G and Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) play a foundational role in Industry 4.0
• The convergence of high-performance wireless connectivity and AI create new data-intensive use cases
• The right data pipeline layer provides persistent, trustworthy storage from edge to cloud

I encourage you to register today. Our experts will be ready to answer your questions.

Cloud to Edge infrastructures are rapidly growing.  It is expected that by 2025, up to 75% of all data generated will be created at the Edge.  However, Edge is a tricky word and you’ll get a different definition depending on who you ask. The physical edge could be in a factory, retail store, hospital, car, plane, cell tower level, or on your mobile device. The network edge could be a top-of-rack switch, server running host-based networking, or 5G base station.

The Edge means putting servers, storage, and other devices outside the core data center and closer to both the data sources and the users of that data—both edge sources and edge users could be people or machines.

 This trilogy of SNIA Networking Storage Forum (NSF) webcasts will provide:

1. An overview of Cloud to Edge infrastructures and performance, cost and scalability considerations
2. Application use cases and examples of edge infrastructure deployments
3. Cloud to Edge performance acceleration options

Attendees will leave with an improved understanding of compute, storage and networking resource optimization to better support Cloud to Edge applications and solutions.

At our first webcast in this series on January 26, 2022, “Storage Life on the Edge: Managing Data from the Edge to the Cloud and Back” you‘ll learn:

• Data and compute pressure points: aggregation, near & far Edge
• Supporting IoT data
• Analytics and AI considerations
• Understanding data lifecycle to generate insights
• Governance, security & privacy overview
• Managing multiple Edge sites in a unified way

Register today! We look forward to seeing you on January 26th.

Cloud to Edge infrastructures are rapidly growing.  It is expected that by 2025, up to 75% of all data generated will be created at the Edge.  However, Edge is a tricky word and you’ll get a different definition depending on who you ask. The physical edge could be in a factory, retail store, hospital, car, plane, cell tower level, or on your mobile device. The network edge could be a top-of-rack switch, server running host-based networking, or 5G base station. The Edge means putting servers, storage, and other devices outside the core data center and closer to both the data sources and the users of that data—both edge sources and edge users could be people or machines. This trilogy of SNIA Networking Storage Forum (NSF) webcasts will provide:

1. An overview of Cloud to Edge infrastructures and performance, cost and scalability considerations
2. Application use cases and examples of edge infrastructure deployments
3. Cloud to Edge performance acceleration options

Attendees will leave with an improved understanding of compute, storage and networking resource optimization to better support Cloud to Edge applications and solutions. At our first webcast in this series on January 26, 2022, “Storage Life on the Edge: Managing Data from the Edge to the Cloud and Back” you‘ll learn:

• Data and compute pressure points: aggregation, near & far Edge
• Supporting IoT data
• Analytics and AI considerations
• Understanding data lifecycle to generate insights
• Governance, security & privacy overview
• Managing multiple Edge sites in a unified way

Register today! We look forward to seeing you on January 26th.

The title of our recent live SNIA Cloud Storage Technologies webcast, “Cloud Storage and Big Data, A Marriage Made in the Clouds” might lead you to believe we were producing a new reality show, but of course, that was not the case. This webcast with SNIA experts, Chip Maurer, Vincent Hsu and Andy Longworth examined modernization challenges related to Big Data and key considerations for storing Big Data as workloads evolve. Our audience asked great questions during the live event. As promised, here are our experts’ answers. Q: Is there much movement with Open Source Object Storage solutions, such as OpenStack suite – Swift, etc? A. Yes, there is no shortage of Open Source storage solutions. The decision depends upon your organization’s expertise, reliability, cost, application availability and location, and your overall storage strategy. Q. What drives organizations to modernize? A. Modernization decisions are based on an organization’s strategic priorities. Cost, performance and scalability are also frequently key factors. Q. What pushes an organization to on-premises vs. cloud? A. Government regulations, where data cannot leave the data center due to data privacy and data protection concerns are a frequent reason for staying on-prem. Cost is another reason. Despite the benefits of cloud, in many cases, it is less costly to keep data on-prem. Q. Are universities producing graduates with required current “Big Data” skills? A.  It seems to be university specific. Many are on the cutting-edge and offer several data science certificates and advanced degree programs.

As storing data in the cloud has become ubiquitous and mature, many organizations have adopted a multi-cloud strategy. Eliminating dependence on a single cloud platform is quite a compelling case with benefits of increased reliability, availability, performance, and the avoidance of vendor lock-in and/or specific vendor vulnerabilities to name a few. In short, spanning multiple clouds ensures a business does not have all its eggs (i.e. data) in one basket. Aside from utilizing tech, business can also continue to grow by learning information such as legalzoom vs rocket lawyer. In case of financial challenges, seeking hotels and hospitality business liquidation advice can provide tailored insights and guidance for managing your business effectively and safeguarding its future. But multi-cloud environments are not without challenges. Taking advantage of the benefits without increasing complexity requires a strategy that ensures applications are not tightly coupled to cloud-specific technologies. Supporting a storage abstraction layer that insulates the application from the underlying cloud provider’s interfaces allows an application to be easily used with multiple clouds. It allows storage features specific to a cloud to be exposed in a standardized manner and enables data to be transparently accessed and migrated as needed in order to take advantage of cloud-specific features without the application being aware of the underlying mechanics, thus reducing or eliminating the limits and vulnerabilities of any one cloud. How, and why, to support a storage abstraction layer will be the focus of our live SNIA Cloud Storage Technologies (CSTI) webcast on January 11, 2022, “Why Use Multiple Clouds?” where our experts will cover:

• Risk mitigation of multiple clouds
• Transparent movement of data from cloud to cloud
• Political, regulatory and compliance considerations
• Multi-cloud as part of a business continuity strategy
• Exit cost reduction
• Running work in parallel across clouds

Register today. Our experts will be on-hand to answer your questions.