Unstructured data: intelligence at the edge

[StorageExperts]

Unstructured data created in ROBOs is estimated to make up three-fifths of all enterprise data, much of which will never reach the data center. If any of these sites fell victim to ransomware, you may never discover the scale of the loss. Learn how to successfully address these challenges with HPE RDX, a low-cost, easy-to-use removable backup solution for all users.

Remote branch offices (ROBOs) and workers create highly productive, free thinking environments where staff can multi-task and job share to fit with the day to day dynamics of a smaller organization. Every day, they amass large amounts of business intelligence: nuggets of information dotted around in databases, emails, Word documents, PowerPoint presentations and web downloads, all spread across lots of different documents and devices, which may never reach the data center.

This is unstructured data.

According to leading analysts, unstructured data is growing at the rate of 62% per year and by 2022, 93% of all data in the digital universe will be unstructured (IDG); data volume is set to grow 800% over the next 5 years and 80% of it will reside as unstructured data (Gartner)[1].

 StorageSwiss claims that 60% of data is created and lives in so-called endpoints[2].

Another survey by Infocyte on endpoint security reports 64% of organizations were successfully attacked in 2018 – up from 54% a year ago[3].

This is a vital source of enterprise intelligence to be harnessed, analyzed, and controlled—and, above all, protected.

Storing sensitive and regulated data in a Word document or a PowerPoint presentation is fine, as long as there’s enough security in place to prevent them from being opened or edited by an unauthorized user.  Employees are inclined to save, copy and share their files at will, often without taking reasonable steps to protect them. They use personal cloud storage accounts, laptop hard drives, external HDDs or USB sticks which can be lost or stolen. They access documents on smartphones or take them out of the office to work in remote locations where conditions may be far less secure.

The ability to work remotely and autonomously is a critical success factor for many businesses, especially when teams are relatively small and working flexibly.

“Organizations that have embarked on a digital business journey have realized that a more decentralized approach is required to address digital business infrastructure requirements,” says Santhosh Rao, principal research analyst at Gartner. “As the volume and velocity of data increases, so too does the inefficiency of streaming all this information to a cloud or data center for processing.”

But unstructured business data will always be an attractive target for hackers and adds another layer of vulnerability to ransomware in the connected business world. In a smaller office or emerging business, some of the processes and protocols that are taken for granted in the data center or headquarters may not be applied so rigorously, creating the potential for a breach at the edge of the network.

In the end, it’s the simplest approach that can safeguard data against this kind of attack: physically separating a local copy of the data from the connected enterprise.

RDX’s cartridge style hard drive provides a very simple, robust and low-cost disaster recovery solution that enables you to keep your data live and archived offsite at the same time. With hard-drive data transfer speeds and built-in anti-vibration buffers, HPE RDX can back up and restore critical files in seconds, much faster than you can from the cloud.

HPE RDX has plenty of room for terabytes of unstructured data. Individual cartridge capacities range from 500 GB to 4TB and, once one cartridge is full, you can just back up to another. Disk spanning and software-based encryption creates a secure, uninterrupted sequential source of information that can be randomly accessed. RDX can work across a network of small branches, temporary sites or a single business premises. And with a usage life of 5,000 load/unload insertions and a 10-year archival life, you can safely move data offsite for disaster recovery, archive, or data transfer.

In conclusion, unstructured data created in ROBOs is estimated to make up three-fifths of all enterprise data, most of which will never reach the data center. HPE RDX provides a secure, easy-to-use, and extremely cost-effective local storage solution to complement enterprise data protection solutions for the data center and the cloud. 

[1] https://headwaters.group/your-unstructured-data-is-sexy/

[2] https://storageswiss.com/2018/11/12/protecting-your-data-protections-blind-side-endpoints/

[3] https://infocyte.com/blog/cyber-security/2018/10/31/7-takeaways-from-the-2018-state-of-endpoint-security-risk-report/\

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Meet Around the Storage Block blogger Doug Cirruzzo, WW Product Manager, HPE RDX. In addition to product management, Doug provides category sales and marketing support, working with partners and customers across North America. Doug’s passion for SMB sales has helped him achieve continued success across the IT industry in various roles.