GigaOm Sonar Report for Data Security Storage Posture (DSSP) for Data Protectionv1.0

1. Summary

Data is a vital component of every important enterprise process. It must be protected from damage, loss, and unauthorized exposure, both accidental and malicious. Yet the threats to data proliferate with the increasing complexity of modern information systems. The threats of ransomware and industrial espionage are particularly salient to enterprises in the current environment. What was once perceived as low risk has become an existential threat to many organizations with substantial data holdings.

This report seeks to investigate these questions:

• How are vendors addressing the myriad challenges of ensuring data is kept private, secure, and undamaged?
• How are vendors making the security and integrity of data easier to achieve?
• What are data protection vendors doing to ease the burden on customers?

Vendors with a leading data storage security posture (DSSP) are aware of the systemic challenges of securing data in the modern enterprise and they understand that there is no single, universally correct way to secure and protect data. Instead, they provide a layered set of options that each seek to address part of the challenge while also working together to provide a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

For customers that face the greatest threats, a full suite of options is available. For others, the right balance of risk, cost, and complexity will involve a different set of choices. Leading vendors recognize and understand this reality, and provide options accordingly. They understand that your threat model is not my threat model. They assist customers in understanding their own situations and choosing wisely from the available options.

GigaOm Sonars for Data Storage Security Posture

Due to the variety of methods by which customers and vendors are seeking to solve this challenge, we have divided the DSSP landscape into three reports based on customer use cases:

1. Primary storage systems: Solutions that focus on primary storage services, usually deployed as, or on, hardware appliances, such as storage arrays.
2. Data protection systems: Solutions that focus on the backup and recovery of data.
3. Data security infrastructure: An emerging category of solutions that have a broader focus than primary data services or backup and recovery. They blend techniques from primary storage and backup and recovery and introduce novel methods from other fields such as information security.

Figure 1 shows the vendors and DSSP systems covered in each report.

Figure 1. Vendors Included in Each GigaOm Sonar for DSSP

The evolving nature of data security is reshaping traditional market categories. Ransomware in particular has vendors in one category incorporating techniques that were once left to those in another. For example, backup and recovery systems sometimes act as primary storage for rapid recovery, and intrusion detection methods that were once left to the information security department are now being incorporated into storage products of all kinds.

This GigaOm Sonar provides prospective customers with an alternative way to evaluate DSSP solutions in the context of these broader market changes, equipping IT decision-makers with the information they need to select the best solution for their business and use case requirements.