EUROPEAN DATA CENTERS REMAIN AT RISK FOR SECURITY THREATS DESPITE GOVERNMENTAL WARNINGS

HALF OF SENIOR IT DECISION MAKERS ADMIT TO SUFFERING SECURITY BREACHES, BUT OVER 80 PER CENT HAVE NOT EMPLOYED ENCRYPTION TECHNOLOGIES TO PROTECT DATA

Brocade® unveiled on 14th January 2009 commissioned research suggesting that data center security is still not considered a top priority, despite half of the respondents experiencing attacks this year. Of these companies that suffered security breaches, 70 percent stated that the lost data was not encrypted, though 82 percent of these respondents noted that encryption technologies could have mitigated their risk. According to the UK Information Commissioner’s office, 277 major corporate security breaches have been reported this year alone*.

The research was based on a poll of 4,500 senior European IT decision-makers in the UK, France and Germany during late 2008. The research results reveal that perhaps up to a third of these organizations are simply ignoring security of their most mission critical part of their businesses – the data center. And in many instances, companies with IT security policies in place for their data centers are not properly utilizing them unless mandated by senior management or to comply with regulatory requirements.

“The amount of sensitive information continues to grow precipitously, so organizations need a broader deployment of encryption technologies across data centers in order to protect data confidentiality and privacy,” said Jon Oltsik, senior analyst, at Enterprise Strategy Group. “Specific to storage, these security and privacy demands require an architectural approach for enterprise-wide encryption of data-at-rest while enabling end-to-end management for the secure flow of data across multiple fabrics.”

Brocade recently announced the availability of encryption and management solutions that can be implemented without disruption into the storage fabric and applied to specified data flows. The Brocade security solutions preserve existing and new storage investments by supporting a heterogeneous mix of networked storage systems and support for virtual tape libraries and tape drives.

“The most mission critical corporate data resides within the data center and should require a robust, non-disruptive, fabric-based data security strategy to avoid damaging breaches,” said Mike Murphy, Director of Marketing – EMEA, at Brocade. “While over three quarters of businesses agree that a data loss would be catastrophic, this survey illustrates that not enough is being done to protect critical assets.”

For more information about data center security, visit http://www.brocade.com/products-solutions/solutions/security/index.page.

The Brocade survey was carried out among senior IT decision makers in late 2008.

Brocade® develops the highest-performance, most cost-effective, and most reliable networking solutions that enable today’s complex, data-intensive businesses to optimize information connectivity and maximize the business value of their data. For more information, visit www.brocade.com.

Source: Spreckley Partners
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