Are Onsite Data Centers or Cloud Storage the Best Way to Protect Data?

Jan 25, 2018 Blog Article

You may have heard of millennials “killing things,” from napkins to chain restaurants, but did you know that onsite (on-premises) data centers could also be meeting their doom in the near future? Even though 65 percent of enterprise workloads were running in owned or onsite data centers in 2017, and the fact that this number hasn’t changed much from 2014, tech experts and analysts expect 2018 will be the year […]

Fredrik Forslund

Fredrik Forslund As Vice President and General Manager of International Sales, Fredrik brings over 20 years of experience in IT security. This includes most recently leading Blancco's data center and cloud erasure initiatives and before that, founding SafeIT, a security software company focusing on encryption and selective data erasure. With a keen eye for streamlining corporate IT security efficiencies and maintaining compliance with data privacy legislation, he is regarded as a thought leader among customers and partners.

You may have heard of millennials “killing things,” from napkins to chain restaurants, but did you know that onsite (on-premises) data centers could also be meeting their doom in the near future? Even though 65 percent of enterprise workloads were running in owned or onsite data centers in 2017, and the fact that this number hasn’t changed much from 2014, tech experts and analysts expect 2018 will be the year that public cloud and co-location will overtake these onsite enterprise data centers.

The Argument: Safety in the Cloud vs. Safety Onsite

According to Marcus Turner, CTO at Enola Labs, “Today, it is simply a matter of fact: Unless you have a computer that is not actually connected to the internet, data is safer in the cloud.” Turner makes this point by referencing last year’s rampant “WannaCry” ransomware attack, stating that the cloud is more secure and less expensive than keeping data onsite.

On the opposite side of things, some industries, such as healthcare and financial, require that sensitive data be kept in private data centers, and many organizations believe the best way to keep their information secure is to keep it in their own data centers, instead of exposing their data to third parties.

And, as Andy Patrizio of Network World points out, it doesn’t make sense from a financial standpoint to move some data to the cloud. He writes, “There are some workloads that will never go to the cloud. [A]nything data-intensive is not moving to the cloud, because you will get killed on the bill. So, analytics, business intelligence (BI), large databases, big data, and similar tasks are not moving to Amazon Web Services (AWS) any time soon.” This would imply that onsite data centers aren’t going anywhere soon, as most organization will try and keep this data onsite.

So which one is it? Will onsite data centers be disappearing, or are they destined to stick around out of necessity? And what’s the best way to protect your information across the full data lifecycle?

The Pros & Cons

The truth is, both onsite data center storage and cloud storage have pros and cons, which is why so many companies are choosing hybrid cloud solutions—a mix of these two options.

Here are some pros and cons of cloud storage you’ll want to consider:

PROS OF CLOUD STORAGECONS OF CLOUD STORAGE
Onsite hardware/capital expensesLimited by the speed of your internet connection
Grows with your company’s infrastructureThird-party services have access to your sensitive information
Easily scalableUnexpected downtime can limit access to your information
On-demand solutions sometimes allow you to pay for only the options you wantCosts may outweigh the benefits

And here are some pros and cons of storing data onsite in your own data center(s).

PROS OF ONSITE SERVERSCONS OF ONSITE SERVERS
Gives you physical controlRequires monetary investment in infrastructure and hardware
Keeps sensitive and critical data onsite; no 3rd parties have access to that informationRequires space, as well as a dedicated team, costing you additional money
No internet connection required to access dataMay be more susceptible to data loss during disasters, depending on how often you migrate data offsite

The storage method you choose is up to you and your business needs, but whatever you decide, you need to make sure your sensitive data is protected.

Securing Data Throughout Its Lifecycle

To protect your data infrastructure, you must have security measures, such as encryption and firewalls, in place. You also need to take a hard look at what data you actually need and how any unnecessary data could be slowing you down or racking up additional costs. Securely erasing this ROT (redundant, obsolete and trivial) data, whether in active or static environments, can help you reduce costs and lessen your attack surface.

Blancco Data Center Solutions help organizations securely remove this unnecessary data with an auditable process that produces a tamper-proof certificate for every erasure, whether you have a private data center, use colocation services or completely outsource storage to the cloud. Secure data erasure is especially important when it’s time to remove storage assets from your secure data center facility. From end-of-life drives and servers to active files, virtual machines and logical storage area networks, you can achieve data sanitization across all your IT assets throughout the full data lifecycle.

Experience the Blancco Difference. Get your free Data Center Solutions Trial today.

You may be interested in: