4 Core Elements to Include in Your Multicloud Data Protection Strategy

Multicloud data protection ensures the safety and security of your data when it is stored across multiple cloud environments.

While multicloud setups offer the ability to meet cost expectations and workload-specific needs, they often come with the caveat of complex configuration. A multicloud data protection strategy helps organizations overcome data management hurdles while realizing the full benefits of their multicloud deployments. It involves a systemic implementation plan based on your data requirements and migration goals.

The idea is to leverage the upside of multiple cloud environments while keeping risks at bay.

A holistic multicloud data protection strategy focuses on:

• Data security – Provide only authorized access to sensitive data without compromise
• Data availability – Make data available when needed by apps and users
• Data loss protection – Prevent data loss that may take place due to accidental deletion or malicious attacks
• Data corruption prevention – Ensure data is safe from undesired changes such as encryption or losing its original form

Managing a set of different architectures is much more complex than just managing a single cloud. Here are three of the most common data challenges in a multicloud environment.

As data gets distributed across multiple cloud providers, managing backup windows becomes more complex. Critical data assets come with their own backup SLAs that may not align with assets stored in other locations. A public cloud may offer automated backups, but this might not be the case in a self-hosted private cloud environment.

This makes ensuring timely backups for mission critical operations harder to achieve, which may lead to frequent data loss.

One innovation that enables backup resiliency for such scenarios is Dell PowerProtect – a suite of data protection solutions that spans multiple clouds. You can centrally manage and replicate data on or from various public clouds, as well as on-premises storage. The solution integrates with Dell APEX Protection Storage, specialized for public cloud data management to offer faster data backup and comprehensive reductions in storage consumption for backups. Organizations can achieve greater control over data stored in multicloud environments and data security against cyberthreats for public cloud.

Integrating and managing data across various cloud platforms can create friction when each cloud provider has its own APIs, interfaces and management tools.

In your hybrid architecture, this leads to lower agility and efficiency in data storage and retrieval. Organizations might also grapple with learning curves, resource allocation and troubleshooting hassles.

To streamline operations, it’s advisable to go for a centralized toolset that can monitor data across a variety of environments.

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager offers a single view of data protection priorities no matter where your data resides. It can simplify the backup management process for organizations struggling with data assets split across multicloud environments. As it standardizes data protection operations across different environments, it shortens the learning curve associated with cloud adoption via a single reusable skillset.

Each cloud provider follows its own security protocols, certifications and compliance standards. Organizations must align their security practices accordingly as inconsistent security measures can create vulnerabilities. There’s also the risk of data breaches, unauthorized access and non-compliance with industry regulations.

Dell PowerFlex software-defined storage is a possible solution for this problem as it offers a centralized, performant and highly scalable solution for keeping your data secure. When coupled with Dell PowerProtect Cyber Recovery powered by CyberSense, data backups and recovery can also be rolled into one unified solution.   

The solution also offers a logical air gap between your production environment and data backup vault. This makes it possible to ensure the security and recoverability of critical data for Dell PowerFlex customers.    

By including the following four best practices in your multicloud data protection strategy, you can effectively bridge the technology, security and integration gaps.

Most public and private clouds offer built-in tools for securing data, but they might fall short as you move to a multicloud environment. Especially when you’ve got a multitiered architecture, which rests on more than one cloud at the same time.

For instance, it’s easy to manage backups within Google Cloud for Cloud SQL but if your application uses AWS RDS simultaneously, your engineers would have to learn two different playbooks.

Tools purpose-made for multicloud setups can solve this challenge. Dell’s Cloud Snapshot Manager is one solution designed to provide efficient and secure data protection across multicloud environments.

Innovations like Kubernetes are cloud-agnostic. It means that the same management principles apply to all Kubernetes deployments no matter which cloud you use.  

Using a cloud-agnostic data protection tool based on Kubernetes can simplify how you manage data across platforms. You can employ a standardized procedure for each cloud to ensure data consistency and security without learning platform-native tools. For instance, Dell PowerProtect Data Manager is a multicloud data protection platform for Kubernetes that can help organizations secure their Kubernetes deployments.

When building a multicloud architecture, work on binding the security ends that come loose due to cross-cloud functionalities. This involves a thorough assessment, identification and resolution for security risks, including the following steps:

• Data classification and tagging: Properly classify and tag data based on its sensitivity and regulatory requirements.
• Data loss prevention: Deploy DLP solutions to monitor data movement and define policies to block or alert you of sensitive data transfers.
• Audit trails and logging: Enable detailed logging for all cloud services and regularly review logs for anomalies or unauthorized activities.
• Data resilience and backup: Employ data backup solutions that meet multicloud needs such as backup security, recovery point objective and centralized management. Ensure isolated, immutable, intelligent cyber resiliency with Dell Cyber Recovery.

Recovering data on demand with full integrity and managing data capacity in an ever-evolving digital world are two main considerations for multicloud users.

Build data recovery mechanisms that work across cloud platforms and ensure consistent backups throughout. Dell Recovery Orchestration can simplify restoration of data assets with customizable restore plans. You can configure, view and manage restorations securely using a unified interface.

For managing the scale of data operations, organizations must rethink how they can dynamically allocate storage and keep it secure. For Dell PowerProtect customers, Smart Scale offers a reliable way of dealing with data scaling troubles.

Smart Scale simplifies capacity management by pooling together multiple devices split across cloud environments. It can scale up to 48 petabytes of storage, which offers considerable leeway for scaling data operations.

CDW and Dell collaborate to offer comprehensive data protection solutions for multicloud customers. We provide backup assessment services to help organizations understand their data protection posture, including backup environments and application health.

We enable you to construct the right data protection strategy for your distributed infrastructure using Dell’s data protection solutions. Our advisors are extensively trained on Dell solutions, enabling you to meet your data protection objectives with confidence.

We cover cyber recovery, optimization tools and all-in-one solutions such as Dell PowerProtect DP4400 appliances so that your data is protected across any environment that you may choose.

The benefits of multicloud architectures can outweigh data protection hassles when you have the right strategy and solutions in place. Organizations that have adopted a multicloud model must address data security and integrity loopholes to gain the most out of their investments.

Dell data protection solutions help organizations de-risk multicloud implementation, ensuring data operations can be carried out uninterrupted and free of vulnerabilities. Make CDW your reliable data protection partner to fully realize the promise of multicloud.