With the global XaaS market expected to reach USD 1225.07 billion by 2030, XaaS data management and protection strategies are becoming a big deal in the tech world.
XaaS stands for “Anything as a Service” or “Everything as a Service”, and it’s changing how businesses handle their tech needs. It is a broad term used in cloud computing to deliver various services, applications and resources over the internet, rather than installing them on individual computers or local servers.
Companies are jumping on the XaaS bandwagon to enhance flexibility, scalability and cost-efficiency, but with this shift comes some tricky challenges, especially when it comes to managing and protecting data.
That’s why having a solid plan for managing and protecting these dispersed data is super important. In this article, we will explore effective strategies to accomplish this.
Understanding XaaS Data Dynamics
There is a vast range of offerings that can be delivered through the XaaS model, which includes software (SaaS), hardware (HaaS), platforms (PaaS), data storage (DaaS), security (SecaaS) and many more specialized services.
These XaaS environments are different because they are characterized by distributed data storage, dynamic scaling and multi-tenant architectures. And with these portions of the digital space, your data is always on the move. It’s flowing between services, being accessed from different places and constantly changing. This setup is great for flexibility, but it can give you a headache when trying to keep track of everything.
The Big Challenges Here are Things Like:
– Figuring out where all your data is at any given time
– Making sure only the right people can access it
– Keeping it all synced up and consistent
Now, let’s talk about how to get a handle on all this.
Effective Data Governance Strategy
One important key to mitigating the above-mentioned risks and red signals is having a solid data governance plan. Think of it as a rulebook for how you handle your data. To address these challenges, a comprehensive data governance framework is essential. They include:
- Data Classification: Categorize data based on sensitivity and importance. This helps in applying appropriate security measures and compliance protocols.
- Data Lifecycle Management: Implement policies for data creation, storage, use, archiving, and deletion across all services. Have a plan for each piece of data from the moment it’s created until it’s no longer needed.
- Access Control: Utilize role-based access control (RBAC) to manage permissions consistently across platforms.
- Data Quality Management: Establish processes to maintain data accuracy and consistency across services.
Also, it is important to establish clear rules for managing data. It’s like being the coach of a sports team; you need to know where each player (or in this case, each piece of data) should be and what they should be doing.
Take home Nationwide Building Society’s data practice. The UK-based financial institution has implemented a comprehensive data governance strategy to improve its data quality and compliance. Their data governance framework aligns with EU and UK data protection regulations. Key practices include stringent data collection and usage policies, robust security measures, and regular data audits. A dedicated data privacy team and an independent data protection officer overseeing compliance and continuous improvement.
Implement Advanced Security Measures
Security is a big deal in the XaaS world. You can’t just put a lock on the door and call it a day. In January 2024, Trello, the project management tool faced a data breach when hackers scraped data from 15 million users using a public REST API and traded it to the dark web, an occurrence resulting from exploitation. Although this wasn’t a direct break-in, it still exposed user information like emails and names.
The incident points out two important things: Companies need to be extra careful with their public APIs, extending layers of more sophisticated security, and users should pay attention to their privacy settings. Trello responded by making their API require authentication for public profile queries and asking users to review their settings.
To protect data in XaaS environments, organizations must implement advanced security measures, such as the following key things:
- Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Implement MFA across all services to enhance access security.
- Encryption: Use end-to-end encryption for data in transit and at rest.
- Zero Trust Architecture: Adopt a “never trust, always verify” approach to security. Your trust architecture should always be “trust no one.”
- Continuous Monitoring: Keep a constant eye out for any suspicious activity. You can employ real-time monitoring tools to detect and respond to threats quickly.
Plan an Active Incident Response
Even with the best security, sometimes things go wrong. That’s why you need a solid plan for when trouble hits. An effective incident response plan for XaaS should include:
- Clear communication protocols with all service providers. Make sure you can quickly get in touch with all your service providers
- Regular testing of the incident response procedure
- Automated alert systems for quick detection of anomalies
- Defined roles and responsibilities for incident management
Hydro, a Norwegian renewable energy and aluminum manufacturing company, was the target of a massive cyber-attack on March 19, 2019. The attack affected the entire global organization’s network of over 3,000 servers and thousands of PCs, with the Extruded Solutions business area experiencing the most significant operational challenges and financial losses up to the tune of $70 million.
The attack severely disrupted the company’s network and production facilities, forcing them to resort to manual operation for weeks. Despite the attack, Hydro managed to resume normal operations after working tirelessly with internal and external resources to resolve the situation. They had a defined structure for incident management, which allowed them to:
- Immediately shut down network access and switch to manual operations for critical systems.
- Set up three parallel teams focusing on virus investigation, day-to-day operations, and network rebuilding.
- Leverage former employees and retirees to maintain production using paper-based methods.
- Systematically inspect and clean over 30,000 employee accounts and numerous service accounts.
- Rebuild essential systems within three weeks and other systems over three months.
To better enact your response plan like Hydro, have a clear plan for how to respond to different types of incidents, and practice your response plan regularly – like a fire drill, but for data breaches. It’s all about being prepared. You hope you never need it, but you’ll be glad you have it if something does happen.
In Conclusion…
So, there you have it. We’ve covered the basic practices of managing and protecting your data in an XaaS (Everything as a Service) environment. Remember, the key things are:
– Know where your data is and who can access it
– Have clear rules for managing data
– Use strong security measures
– Be prepared for when things go wrong
In the digital wild west, data protection is a top priority as you adopt XaaS. Even with several disruptive changes taking place, you have to stay on your toes and keep adapting your strategies.
