EDITOR ’ S QUESTION

SURYA VARANASI , CTO , STORCENTRIC

To be successful , the person must truly listen to the people in their environment where the opportunity and / or challenges exist , to ensure that they understand all the factors involved – the pros and the cons – before strategizing , presenting their proposal , obtaining buy-in and then implementing the plan .

For CIOs this ability is critical . However , the truth is , that most CIOs have earned their leadership positions because they already know that for their organization to be successful , they must be open to change and push the boundaries of what ’ s thought to be possible . And of course , more often than not , the best way to achieve what appears impossible is with innovative technology .

An example of this truth are the challenges organizations face with cyber-resilience . We find ourselves in an age when cybercriminals , and the malware on which they depend , are growing increasingly intelligent and aggressive .

The only way to combat it and protect an organization ’ s future is to build and continuously review and update ( when necessary ), a strategy that includes a multi-layered defense that begins and ends with innovative technology . The layers must include defense , detection and remediation .

And since it is not a question of ‘ if ’ but rather a question of ‘ when ’ will your organization be successfully hacked , this last and highly critical

The best way to achieve what appears impossible is with innovative technology .

step or being able to ensure restoration of data and operations must be treated with the same level of urgency as the first two layers .

The ability to ensure restoration of data and operations can be achieved with an unbreakable backup solution which creates an immutable , objectlocked format and then takes it a step further by storing the admin keys in another location entirely for added protection .

Other key capabilities that should be inherent in the solution include policy-driven data integrity checks that can scrub the data for faults and auto-heals without any user intervention .

In addition , the unbreakable backup solution should deliver high availability ( HA ) with dual controllers and RAID-based protection that can provide data access even in the event of component failure .

Recovery of data will also be faster because RAIDprotected disk arrays can read faster than they can write . With an unbreakable backup solution that encompasses these capabilities , organizations can ease their worry about their ability to recover – and redirect their time and attention to activities that more directly impact the organization ’ s bottom-line objectives and future .

CIOs that are effective agents of change know that they do not have all of the answers but are eager to ask the necessary questions to find the ideal solution .

These courageous and confident CIOs have the innate ability to think outside the box and work towards making an impact that is greater than themselves .

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