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Not all data and organisational security is created equal

Australia has become a prime target for cybercriminals. In 2024 alone, we recorded 47 million data breaches, according to the Australian Cyber Network’s (ACN) State of the Industry 2024 report, and now rank 4th globally as one of the most targeted nations for cyber threats against critical infrastructure. Phishing attacks are on the rise, with 8.9 million recorded incidents globally, and hackers can escalate their attacks in just 48 minutes (or even faster!).

The evidence is clear – protecting Australia’s critical infrastructure has never been more important.

But there’s a twist. Not all data and organisational security strategies are built the same. If your organisation isn’t prioritising key data or regularly reviewing security policies, you could be taking a big risk with breaches that might seriously disrupt operations.

Are you confident your current setup is ready to handle today’s threats?

Cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated

When you think of a hacker, you might picture someone in a dark hoodie working tirelessly on malware code or sending out phishing emails. But today’s reality is far more complicated.

Enter access brokers – cyber mercenaries who specialise in breaking into organisations. According to a CrowdStrike report, their activity jumped by 50% in 2024. Once they’ve gained access to a network, they sell it off to other cybercriminals, like ransomware groups, essentially turning your compromised system into a ‘cyber open house.’

Adding fuel to the fire is the adoption of AI by cybercriminals. They’re using generative AI to create phishing attacks that are almost impossible to spot and spread highly convincing disinformation. Much like a double-edged sword, while AI is helping businesses grow, it’s also giving hackers incredibly powerful tools that didn’t exist just a few years ago.

If that’s not unsettling enough, 79% of detections in 2024 were ‘malware-free’. This makes traditional anti-virus solutions blunt tools in a razor-sharp arena. Most attacks now rely on social engineering and identity-based compromises instead of relying on traditional malware.

Protect what really counts

Many organisations stumble by relying on security strategies that treat all data as being equal. Instead, the value of data varies between industries. For example:

Critical infrastructure sectors—like electricity, healthcare, food supply—carry highly sensitive data whose breach could create nationwide ripple effects.
Retail and financial services deal with volumes of personal identifiable information (PII) that could cause harm if it gets leaked.

Aside from industry factors, data silos can impact value. For instance, customer payment details and intellectual property usually need stronger protections compared to public-facing operational data.

If your security framework doesn’t account for these differences, you could end up over- or under-investing in critical areas.

Attackers prey on the unsuspecting

Today’s phishing attempts aren’t just about dodgy emails packed with malware—they’re all about catching you off guard in a split second. Business email compromise (BEC) scams go one step beyond, targeting human instincts and those brief moments of poor judgment.

Here’s a statistic likely to give you pause: The fastest recorded ‘breakout time’ for lateral movement in a target system was just 51 seconds.

Unfortunately, once hackers have cracked one layer of your security, their partners-in-crime won’t be far behind.

Take steps to strengthen your security framework

If adopting wholesale security strategies gives you a false sense of calm, here are actionable steps to bolster your approach:

Step 1. Prioritise data by sensitivity

Start by mapping out and categorising your most sensitive data. Then set up detailed access control policies that match the sensitivity of the data. Frameworks like the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and ASD’s Essential Eight Maturity Model are great starting points.
Step 2. Put least-privilege policies in place

By adopting least-privilege principles, everyone in your organisation—whether inside or outside the company—only gets the access they need and gets verified every time they access your system.
Step 3. Regularly check access privileges

Do you know who accessed what—and why? Regular audits should check on access privileges, especially for sensitive systems or user accounts, like admin profiles.
Step 4. Train and empower your team

Since phishing and BEC attacks often rely on human mistakes, cybersecurity awareness shouldn’t be just an IT-related activity. Run simulated phishing tests to keep everyone sharp and on their toes.
Step 5. Partner up where necessary

When resources like people, money, or time are tight, managed services focused on governance, risk and compliance can take the pressure off. If an access broker sells sensitive credentials, responding quickly can mean the difference between staying out of the news or making headlines.
Step 6. Conform to standards like ASD’s Essential 8 or NIST

Following cybersecurity frameworks like NIST 2.0 or ASD’s Essential Eight helps you build a strong, layered defence system.
- ASD’s Essential Eight recommends using multi-factor authentication, application whitelisting, and regular data backups, amongst other best practices.
- The NIST framework—which now also includes governance—helps organisations map out their current and future security measures, making it easier to improve over time.

Act now before threats outpace defences

Recent legislative changes in Australia, like the 2022 Critical Infrastructure Act, aim to close the floodgates. But with the expanded scope, more businesses(and even their supply chains) now have to step up and meet stricter cybersecurity requirements.

Remember, hackers don’t always directly target infrastructure. Instead, they breach remote vendors and service providers to worm their way in from the side. By taking proactive steps and building a strong security strategy, you can elevate ‘good’ organisational security to ‘impenetrable’.

Report reveals: A surprising number of organizations still tethered to outdated backup practices

You’re probably well aware that efficiency and optimisation are the name of the game for organisations in 2025.

But many businesses are unknowingly leaving immense value on the table, simply because they don’t maximise their backup strategies.

Added to this challenge is the reality that the winds of change aren’t letting up. With more and more of your teams depending on digital data, and—in tandem with the rising role of data security—it’s predicted we’ll all be witnessing the upward trajectory of backup and restore software from 2025 to 2032.

While backing up data may seem like a no-brainer, outdated practices like manual backups remarkably continue to plague nearly a third of organisations.

For those of us trapped in the now-archaic practice of tape storage, the time has come to jump into the 21^st century and consider an updated approach to our data management and protection strategies.

Today’s state of backup disarray is more common than you’d think

In addition to the alarming 29% of organisations still manually copying backup data, 5% of businesses leave their SaaS applications completely unprotected.

While these statistics may seem shocking, they’re a symptom of an outdated mindset that backups are merely ‘nice to have’.

To understand how far we’ve come, let’s take a step back and consider the legacy of tape backups.

Manual intervention used to be the norm. We didn’t have the option to question the laborious practice of swapping tapes out daily and transporting them offsite for security. As well as being taxing, getting to a point of recovery frequently chewed up months of valuable time and resources that nobody had to spare.

Annoyance with backup tapes was something that Colin, Biggers & Paisley, a Sydney-based law firm, could relate to. Their systems administration manager, Steven West, has looked after their backup and recovery process for over a decade, and remembers the frustration well.

“Using backup tapes was a massive commitment in terms of both time and effort. We ran old-school backup and sync products (like tape and disks) to cover on-premises and virtual machines throughout the week, and on weekends and public holidays.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t leave us a lot of room for system maintenance windows. By the time our backup technician finished, we’d have over a dozen tapes or disks to remove from the offices and store off-site in a bank vault. Then we’d start the whole backup process again.”

Since investing in a modern, fully-managed solution, the Colin, Biggers & Paisley team has come out the other side with bragging rights that feature business-enhancing advantages like streamlined processes, reduced downtime, and significantly minimised disaster recovery risks. What’s not to love?

Backing up responsibly is in your hands, so don’t sit on them

The age of cloud backups is saving the day, but to truly safeguard your organisation against the inevitability of a cyberattack, your backup strategy needs to be automated, tested, and proactive.

Rather than mopping up the mess after a disaster, the first prize is to get ahead of the problem.

Enter the proactive approach of data resilience. With this key piece of the disaster recovery puzzle in place, you can weather a cyberattack, retrieve critical data and applications during the attack, and get back to work in record time.

To shed light on how to implement robust cybersecurity plans that defend your business during that inevitable attack, these three standards can help you cut through the clutter:

The Shared Responsibility

The essence of this security and compliance framework may come as news to some: protecting your data is your responsibility.

Most businesses in Australia use an average of three public cloud service providers, and assume that data protection is part of the deal. But while platforms like Microsoft 365, Salesforce, and Google Workspace manage infrastructure, many cloud applications only offer limited protection.

Building cyber resilience requires action and should be top of your agenda. Make a start today by confirming that your SaaS solutions like Xero, Salesforce, or Intuit are truly backed up.
Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) Essential Eight

According to guidelines from the ASD, data protection plans should include:
- Consistent and trustworthy backups that support the continuation of your business services
- Disaster recovery activities that stress-test the effectiveness of your data restoration strategy
- Guardrails to protect backups from being edited by the backup team during their retention period
- Proactive retention procedures that guarantee secure compliance
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 3-2-1 Rule

While navigating the expanse of security threats can feel complex and daunting, the NIST 3-2-1 Rule is simple, clear, and succinct:
- Secure three copies of your data
- Keep the copies in two different locations or media formats
- Store one copy in the cloud or offsite

Subpar backup strategies can result in eye-watering costs

According to Forbes, the global average cost of a data breach amounted to a whopping $4.88 million in 2024. As we all become increasingly data-dependent in our workplaces, the expected consequences for those of us who don’t have plans to upgrade to automated, cloud-based solutions are clear.

While your teams may already be lagging behind in their backup strategy, all is not lost. The promise of efficiency and peace of mind are well within reach if you’re ready to fight—and win—the war on risk.

A heads up for 2025: 10 data management trends to keep your eye on

Welcome to 2025. So, what are the emerging data management trends that will frame up the future? Yours, and ours.

We’ve all become ever more reliant on data for decision-making, strategic planning and operational efficiency. These are some of the trends that will change and improve how we manage information in our businesses.

1. Data fabric architecture is (still) hot to trot

The concept of data fabric was first floated in the early 2010s (and Forrester made the term official in 2013), but it didn’t gain real traction until around 2018.

This year (and beyond), it’s expected that data fabric architectures will continue to rise in popularity. In its Top Trends in Data & Analytics (D&A) through 2030, Gartner predicts that by 2027, “30% of enterprises will use data ecosystems enhanced with elements of data fabric supporting composable application architecture to achieve a significant competitive advantage.”

Data fabric is a completely new approach to data management. It integrates disparate data sources across on-premises and cloud environments into a single cohesive framework.

What will adopting a data fabric architecture mean for you? With a unified view of your data, you can streamline how you access, manage, and analyse it. Both data governance and decision-making will be easier as your stakeholders can easily get their hands on real-time data. As you expand – and your data siloes do likewise – data fabric will make sure you can maintain transparency of all of your organisational data.

2. Cloud data management is here to stay?

First up, we need to say that, in all honesty, the shift towards any cloud-based solution can no longer be called a trend. It’s a fundamental, done-and-dusted change in how today’s businesses approach data storage and management.

We all know that businesses have moved away in droves from traditional on-premises solutions in favour of scalable, flexible cloud environments. (As of 2021, O’Reilly Media reported that cloud adoption by businesses, from SMEs to mega-enterprises, was already over 90%.)

So, when it comes to cloud data management solutions, what’s in it for you? Try the big three: accessibility, collaboration, and cost-efficiency. You’ll be able to leverage the best features of multiple cloud services, support data redundancy and disaster recovery, and also tick all the boxes for scalability, flexibility, and cost savings. Best of all, you can choose the best services for your needs – while avoiding vendor lock-in. Not to forget, you’ll be able to support dynamic workloads and drive innovation.

3. Data governance and compliance will just get tougher

As data privacy regulations tighten even further, effective data governance is flagged as a critical priority for organisations around the world.

To comply with regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA, the pressure will be on to implement robust governance frameworks. This includes defining clear policies for how you access, use, and protect your data while also maintaining transparency with your stakeholders regarding your data practices.

What does this mean for you? You’ll need to invest in tools and technologies that will automate your compliance reporting and track the lineage of your data. The role of Data Stewardship will become more prominent, so it’s likely you’ll need to designate responsibility to someone in the business for overseeing data quality and compliance.

It’s also worth noting the larger governance picture: Gartner says that “current data governance practices are often too rigid and insensitive to the business context. By 2027, for example, 60% of organizations will fail to realise the anticipated value of their AI use cases due to incohesive data governance frameworks.”.

4. Real-time data processing for real-time decisions

The rise in demand for real-time data processing is another trend to watch for as businesses increasingly seek to make on-the-spot decisions.

In The Wall Street Journal’s article ‘In an On-Demand World, Real-Time Data Is ‘Becoming an Expectation’, AWS’s VP of Messaging and Streaming, says, “Anything outside of using real-time data can frustrate end consumers and feel unnatural. Having real-time data always available is becoming an expectation for customers. It’s the world we’re living in.”

As for your business? Be on the lookout for technologies such as stream processing and event-driven architecture. These will allow you to analyse data as it arrives so you can respond quickly to changing market conditions and consumer behaviour. Another bonus is that real-time analytics can improve the customer experience. You can delight them by acting and reacting more quickly and making personalised recommendations to ramp up both engagement and loyalty.

Are you in the finance, healthcare, or e-commerce industry? Then, you’ll find real-time analytics particularly beneficial for fraud detection and patient monitoring.

5. Decentralised data management makes its move

With the rise of blockchain technology, decentralised data management is gaining momentum. This approach enhances data security and integrity by allowing multiple parties in your organisation to access and verify data – without relying on a central authority.

So, how is this helpful? If you’re in an industry where consumers turn to you for trust and transparency (think finance, healthcare, and supply chain management), then decentralisation is particularly beneficial. It also helps you reduce the risk of data breaches and ensure that your private information remains…private.

6. Emerging data privacy and security enhancements

7. Data is no longer a byproduct but a standalone product

The view of data is changing from a byproduct of a business’s operations to a product in its own right – or, in techspeak, Data as a Product (DaaP).

How will DaaP impact you? The DaaP approach encourages you and your team to treat your data with the same care and strategy as your most valued (and valuable) products and services. By focusing on the quality, usability, and customer value of your data, you can create new revenue streams and, again, enhance the customer experience. A DaaP approach also fosters accountability and ownership within your teams as the value of the business’s data is in their hands.

8. Sustainability in data management will become a thing

As awareness of environmental issues rises, many organisations are being pushed to how sustainable their data management practices are. Considerations that come into play include optimising data storage to reduce energy consumption and prioritising eco-conscious operations by adopting cloud solutions.

How can you do your bit? Talk to your data centre about how they manage energy consumption, utilise renewable energy sources, and apply practices that reduce the carbon footprint of data storage and processing. (Any data centre worth its salt will have this information at their fingertips). Also, consider the lifecycle of your data – from creation to disposal. Does it align with your sustainability goals?

9. Data democratisation, self-service data platforms, and data literacy programmes

As we all increasingly focus on the trend of making data accessible to all employees (regardless of their technical expertise), there will also be more demand for user-friendly analytics platforms and self-service tools. Obviously, training programs will be essential to allow your employees to make confident data-driven decisions.

What will this mean for you? If you aim to foster self-sufficiency in a data-driven culture, then you need to plan to investigate self-service platforms that allow your non-technical users to access, analyse, and visualise data. All without turning to an already under-the-pump IT department for support. And back it up with data literacy programs so your employees can read, understand, and communicate data effectively.

10. AI and Machine Learning integration

No list of trends is complete without a very large nod to Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). And yes, it’s a pretty fair bet that every trends list for this year will include both – and with good reason.

In the context of what this will mean for you, AI and ML are transforming data management practices by eliminating time-consuming processes involved in data classification, cleaning, linking, and analysis and replacing them with automation. If your team never again have to analyse a large dataset, they’ll thank you for it.

You can also look forward to using AI to forecast market trends and customer behaviour with uncanny precision – so, in turn, your marketing team can use their talents to develop more targeted and effective marketing strategies.

And with AI, you can finally convert those large volumes of data that have been left to languish into actionable insights and drive predictive analytics. For example, AI algorithms can identify patterns in vast datasets, so you can anticipate trends and make those data-driven decisions pronto. AI can also personalise data experiences for your users so they can find what they need more easily – and reduce errors.

Overall? What does this all mean?

So, given these trends, what will 2025 look like? The data management landscape this year will be typified by a blend of technological advancements, regulatory compliance, and a strong emphasis on security and sustainability. In many ways – no big surprises.

Those organisations (and we sincerely trust you will be one of them) that proactively adapt to these trends will be in a much better position to turn their data into a strategic asset to fuel growth and innovation.

Global Storage retains ISO 27001 Certification

Chicken or egg: Cyber resistance vs cyber resilience

In a digital world where data is the new ‘everything’, it’s unsurprising that it has become a prime target for criminals. Data is the modern-day equivalent of a stash of gold bullion – and it can be stolen, ransomed, and sold for profit with less effort and risk than a bank heist.

The unrelenting waves of global cyberattacks mean that the cost of business survival is escalating – with the cost of cyberattacks doubling between 2022 and 2023. To combat this, Infosecurity Magazine reports that 69% of IT leaders saw or expected cybersecurity budget increases of between 10 and 100% in 2024.

The cost of crime

At the pointy end of the problem, organisations face damaged or destroyed data, plundered bank accounts, financial fraud, lost productivity, purloined intellectual property, the theft of personal and financial data, and more.

The blunt end is no less damaging. There’s the cost of recovering data, rebuilding your reputation, and getting your business back to a state of BAU as soon as possible, as well as the hefty price tag that comes with forensic investigation, restoring and deleting hacked data and systems, and even prosecution

Generative AI to the cyber-rescue?

Many see the rise of generative AI and expansion into hybrid and multi-cloud environments as the means to alleviate the ongoing attacks. But, of course, the democratisation of generative AI (in other words, goodies and baddies have equal access to its powers) means that potential risks are also heightened.

Despite this, it’s hard to overcome the optimism that generative AI will be a cyber-saviour. According to Dell Technologies 2024 Global Data Protection Index (APJ Cyber Resiliency Multicloud Edition), 46% of responders believe that generative AI can initially provide an advantage to their cyber security posture, and 42% are investing accordingly.

But here’s the rub: 85% agree that generative AI will create large volumes of new data that will need to be protected and secured. So generative AI will, by default, (A) potentially offer better protection and (B) increase the available attack space due to data sprawl and unstructured data.

Resistance vs resilience

Of the APJ organisations (excluding China) that Dell surveyed, 57% say they’ve experienced a cyberattack or cyber-related incident in the last 12 months.

And a good 76% have expressed concern that their current data protection measures are unable to cope with malware and ransomware threats. 66% say they’re not even confident that they can recover all their business-critical data in the event of a destructive cyber-attack.

So why, if 66% of organisations doubt their ability to recover their data, are 54% investing more in cyber prevention than recovery?

Can you separate the cyber chicken from the egg?

In a recent cybersecurity stats round-up, Forbes Advisor reported that in 2023, there were 2,365 cyberattacks impacting 343 million victims.

Given the inevitability of cyberattack, it’s critical that your methods of resistance are robust, and if disaster strikes, your ability to recover is infallible.

Look at it this way: While a cruise liner obviously must have radar to detect and try and avoid approaching icebergs, angry orcas, and other collision-prone objects, it’s just as important that they have lifeboats, lifeboat drills, lifejackets, and locator devices available to minimise loss of life and keep everyone afloat.

In the words of Harvard Business Review: “Simply being security-conscious is no longer enough, nor is having a prevention-only strategy. Companies must become cyber-resilient—capable of surviving attacks, maintaining operations, and embracing new technologies in the face of evolving threats.”

So, how do you bolster your cyber resilience?

According to Dell, 50% of the organisations they surveyed have brought in outside support (including cyber recovery services) to enhance cyber resilience.

While AI will undoubtedly introduce some initial advantages, as suggested earlier, those could be quickly offset as cybercriminals leverage the very same tools. Not only are traditional system and software vulnerabilities under attack, but due to the sprawl of AI-generated data, there are more and newer opportunities.

So – can we rely on generative AI to save the day? Probably not – or not yet anyway. What about outside help? Yes, most definitely. However, cyber resilience begins at home, with a top-down strategy based on some inarguable facts:

Attacks are inevitable. Once you accept that this is the new reality of the digital age, the logical next step is to develop a clear, holistic strategy focusing on business continuity and crisis planning.
People are the first and best line of defence. Ensure your entire organisation takes responsibility and is cyber-aware – to the extent that your procedures are included in your company policies and onboarding processes. This should include delivering ongoing cyber awareness training and introducing regular drills.
When disaster strikes, survival is in your hands. Establish clear cybersecurity governance that aligns with your business objectives. Everyone in the organisation should know what they need to do to protect the organisation, its data, and its clients and ensure continuity of operations.
No one is trustworthy. Assume everything around your network is a potential threat. Adopt a zero-trust mindset that requires continual verification and rigidly controls access based on preset policies.
What you don’t know can hurt you. The ability to detect and prevent threats is critical. Invest in Security as a Service to provide visibility into your data, regardless of where it’s located, so that you can see and address your weaknesses.
Disaster will strike. We live in unexpected times, where cybercrime and unprecedented natural disasters conspire to stop us in our tracks. With cloud-basedDisaster Recovery as a Service, the risk of permanently losing data and disrupting business as usual is significantly reduced.

Do you have a data rubbish dump, or a treasure trove?

Back in 2018, IDC predicted that by 2025, the Global Datasphere would have grown from 33 zettabytes to 175 zettabytes. Arcserve predicted 200 zettabytes, and Statista 180 zettabytes. Now, with 328.77 million terabytes of data being created daily in 2024, Statista’s prediction looks to be on the money.

While that’s all very impressive, what’s probably of more interest to most of us is what form that data will take. Why? Because data falls into two camps. 1. Structured and immediately useful, and 2. Unstructured, and due to its raw, unprocessed, and often chaotic nature, challenging to utilise.

According to IDC, 90% of business data is unstructured – and consists of customer contracts, employee handbooks, product specs, video, imagery, IoT sensor data – and more. Only 46% of companies report that they analyse their unstructured data to extract value from it – and less than half of it at that.

The problem with unstructured data

Structured data, with its standardised format, is a low-hanging fruit, ripe for transformation into business insights. So, its value is readily appreciated.

Whereas, by its very nature, unstructured data isn’t easy to search or sort – and, more often than not, is sprawled across an organisation in siloes. But given the wealth (and breadth) of information it represents, it’s also immensely valuable – just harder to access.

Stockpiling unstructured data, with its sensitive customer, company, and employee information, has inherent dangers, starting with security. In its report on unstructured data, CIO Dive says, ‘idle data’ brings higher costs: “Costs associated with security breaches double for companies with more unstructured data.”

Then, there is the cost of storing unstructured data. Logic dictates that as storage costs grow, so must budgets for storage and management. With 38% of businesses already saying that data costs are too high or unpredictable, allocating a hard-won budget to data you will potentially never use can be a bitter pill.

Data sprawl is also the enemy of efficiency as employees manually input data from multiple, decentralised sources. Time and time again.

Given all the challenges, it’s no surprise that 88% of organisations agree that data sprawl makes data management hard and complicates implementing an end-to-end data strategy.

So, why hang on to it?

Despite the cost, few are willing to discard that precious (if underutilised) unstructured data – with most organisations saying that if the cost weren’t a factor, they’d like to keep their data longer.

But why?

Never say no to an opportunity. You can count on the data you never got around to analysing costing you that edge you so desperately wanted. Or significantly improve the customer experience and, as a result, cement their lifetime loyalty. No one wants to be the person responsible for deciding to bin it.
Compliance caution. Unstructured data poses a massive compliance problem for many. Perhaps a big part of the problem is that 96% of organisations with mostly siloed unstructured data don’t know what information lies hidden in that sprawl (whereas of those who have centralised their unstructured data, 98% know exactly what lies beneath the chaos). The crux of it is that if you don’t know what’s in your unstructured data or where it is, you can’t be sure you’re effectively complying with the regulatory standards that govern your business. So, unless you have centralised your unstructured data and got to grips with what you have, it’s safer to hang on to all your data.
AI (artificial intelligence). Harnessing the power of AI is an opportunity that forward-thinking organisations should ignore at their peril. However, if you’re already a convert, you need to get your unstructured data firmly under control with a centralised approach to content. As observed by IDC, while 84% of businesses are already using or exploring AI, “given that LLMs (large language models) are trained on unstructured data, IT leaders can only leverage the power of AI once they have a strategy to manage and secure their data on a single platform.”

Who in your organisation ‘owns’ all this unstructured data anyway?

Answer: Your CDO (chief data officer), aka chief data and analytics officer or just chief analytics officer. Whereas your CIO is typically more focused on technology, your CDO is charged with developing and implementing your data strategy.

While an evolving and relatively new C-suite role, the CDO mantra is ‘data-driven success.’ Part of the CDO’s role, says CIO.com, is to “‘break down silos and change the practice of data hoarding in individual company units.”

With IDC reporting that companies that used their unstructured data in the past 12 months experienced “improved customer satisfaction, data governance and regulatory compliance, among other positive outcomes,” the CDO role is a big step in the right direction.

With most (93%) CDOs agreeing that AI success is a high priority, it’s no surprise that adding analytics and AI to their portfolio is regarded as a key step to success. As is driving value by transforming and curating data (both structured and unstructured), to make it easier to succeed with generative AI.

And as LLMs are powered by unstructured data, it’s clear that one person’s data rubbish dump is a CDO’s carefully curated treasure trove.

Cloud and GenAI. It had to happen.

Whiskers and kittens? Fish and chips? Ben and Jerry? Cloud and GenAI are set to become an inevitable pairing – and one you need to prepare for.

More cloud, more smarts

In its 2023 CIO and Technology Executive Survey, Gartner says the results indicate that over 62% of Australian CIOs expected to spend more on the cloud this year – but are they architecting their cloud platforms to prepare for GenAI?

“Local CIOs have told us the top two technologies they plan on investing in next year are SASE (secure access service edge) to simplify the delivery of critical network and security services via the cloud, and generative AI for its potential to improve innovation and efficiencies across the organization,” says Rowsell-Jones, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner.

According to Gartner, the investment in GenAI will continue to increase alongside the continued shift to digital in Australia over 2024. And Gartner anticipates that enterprises will primarily look to incorporate GenAI through their existing spend in the long term – via the software, hardware, and services already in use.

How will GenAI be served up to users?

GenAI thrives on data and compute power – and the more, the better. So, cloud is an obvious vehicle. However, training AI models, such as the LLM (large language model) that powers ChatGPT, requires access to massive amounts of data and vast amounts of compute power. And that poses a problem for organisations keen to drive value from GenAI but lack the computing resources to leverage the amazing but power-hungry technology.

This is where the first of Forbes’ (10) predictions for computing trends in 2024 comes in: Get ready for AI-as-a-Service.

Just when we needed yet another technology acronym, AIaaS pops into frame. It’s all good, though: By accessing AI-as-a-service through cloud platforms, even those lacking the necessary cloud infrastructure and compute power can leverage AI’s powerful, transformative technology.

While AIaaS is exciting, the subject of cloud cybersecurity and GenAI is more sobering. Forbes warns that “encryption, authentication and disaster recovery are three functions of cloud computing services that will be increasingly in demand as we face up to the evolving threat landscape of 2024.” With data thefts and breaches increasing in frequency and severity as hackers use AI to develop new forms of attack, all systems accessible to humans will be at risk from social engineering attacks. Leaving security and resilience high on the agenda of all cloud providers and customers.

Which brings us to governance and readiness.

Governance and GenAI

In its must-do guide for GenAI governance, Phil Moyer, Google Cloud’s global vice-president for AI and Business Solutions, observed, “Today’s leaders are eager to adopt generative AI technologies and tools. Yet the next question after what to do with it remains, ‘How do you ensure risk management and governance with your AI models?’ In particular, using generative AI in a business setting can pose various risks around accuracy, privacy and security, regulatory compliance, and intellectual property infringement.”

And he makes a very good point. But it’s too early to look to the Australian government for prescriptive guidance just yet; there is currently no AI-specific regulatory framework in place. However, the good news is that we can expect the expanding risks to accelerate focused legislation. While Australia’s 8 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Ethics Principles are designed to ensure AI is safe, secure, and reliable, they are voluntary.

That said, the Australian Government is all in favour of AI adoption, pledging $41.2 million to ‘support the responsible deployment of AI’ in its 2023/2024 budget. This includes strengthening the Responsible AI Network and launching the Responsible AI Adopt Program to help SMEs adopt AI.

Governance internationally, though, has raced ahead. The proposed EU AI Act will be the world’s first comprehensive AI law – watch this space. In 2023, Australia joined the EU and 27 other countries in signing the Bletchley Declaration, an international commitment to ensuring that AI should be designed, developed, deployed, and used in a safe, human-centric, trustworthy, and responsible manner.

Ready, set, go – easier said than done?

How do you ensure you are ready for GenAI and your cloud infrastructure to play nice? It’s one thing to give GenAI the nod but another to successfully integrate it into your cloud architecture. Without a carefully defined and agreed-upon approach, you risk not only failed projects but also a compromised security framework.

Articulate and agree on use cases within your organisation for AI so you can determine what changes should be made to your IT landscape to best suit your needs.

Remember that GenAI is data-centric so ensure your data is clean, accessible, and compatible with cloud storage solutions.

Think ahead when it comes to security and privacy. It’s imperative to have a robust security architecture integrated at every step of the process.

Balance scalability with cost-efficiency to reap benefits, rather than drain finances.

Choose the right cloud infrastructure model for your use case.

Monitor, monitor, and monitor. Not only the performance of your AI models but also your cloud resource costs to ensure operational and architectural efficiency.

Be ethical, stay legal. If GenAI is making decisions impacting your users or creating content, then ethical considerations must drive design principles. While specific AI legislation is not (yet) in place, Australia’s Privacy Act covers some of the considerations, and amendments are due to follow.

Disaster recovery and resilience. High availability can be the difference between value and disaster. It’s critical that your provider/s can minimise downtime and data loss in case of system failures.

Your cloud infrastructure is critical to your ability to leverage GenAI’s transformative power. We don’t want you to be left behind.

The Modern CIO: Building bridges between business and customers.

Once upon a time, the CIO was an unappreciated and largely unknown hero; relegated to the back room and responsible for keeping the lights on without fanfare or recognition. Now, the role has matured to one which is central (and critical) to achieving business goals.

As well as being charged with the responsibilities that come with a seat at the boardroom table, today’s CIO is accountable for building a digital customer-first foundation that can easily evolve to meet changing demands.

How did Customer Experience (CX) become a CIO responsibility?

One of the most telling comments in Forrester’s “The CIO’s Role In The Growth Agenda” report is where they say: One CIO we spoke with told us, “It turns out, I actually own customer experience because I’m responsible for the systems that serve them.”

And with CX being increasingly reliant on technology, the choices the CIO makes now will underpin business growth. They’re important, and far-reaching.

Here’s why.

The case for exceptional CX being the norm, not the exception.

In Forbes’ article from late 2023, “Leading Digital Transformation: Why CIOs Should Keep CX Top Of Mind,” they observe that research has repeatedly shown that keeping customers happy and finding better ways to engage with them is not just crucial for survival but also key to thriving in a challenging economic climate.

Forbes also points to PwC’s Customer Loyalty Executive Survey 2023, where 87% of executives and 51% of consumers in the United States agreed that an online shopping experience can negatively impact loyalty if it’s not as easy or enjoyable as shopping in person.

What is apparent from this, is that CX is critical to growth and loyalty (and profitability) across virtually every aspect of customer interactions – from websites to apps, support to fulfilment, to personalised omnichannel communications based on previous behaviour, preferences, and purchases. And key to this, is your organisation’s ability to collect and meaningfully analyse masses of data – via technology.

Is there more to the CIO role than CX, though?

While important, CX isn’t the be-all and end-all – it’s a two-way bridge. Your technology environment needs to empower your internal stakeholders so they can derive deeper and more valuable insights into the market and make better decisions. From what to sell, when and how, and what next – impacting product development, sales, customer service, marketing, and growth strategies.

And of course, the better the technology, the more ownership and support by your tech teams.

So, circling back around to the original point of this article – today’s CIO plays a critical role in deciding and guiding the use of technology (from your systems of engagement, systems of insight, security, and infrastructure – nothing is exempt) and data.

The decisions you make should enhance how the business interacts with your customers, optimise its processes, and align your business strategies with the needs and high flying CX expectations of your customers – while bringing joy to your stakeholders.

That given, let’s look at how you can ‘make it so.’

The four key strategies to drive a customer-centric tech approach.

1. Be customer aware

Make sure your business is where and what your customers expect it to be with the ability to interact with you how they want to.

While it’s not as simplistic as building it and they will automatically come, failing to build solutions that deliver the high-quality experience your customers expect (from web to mobile apps to self-help) is a sure-fire path to failure in a digital world.

2. Stand united

Your technology model should link your tech and business teams – from marketing, to sales, CX and product, and digital – together, not drive a ‘have/have-not’ wedge between them.

In Forrester’s “The CIO’s Role In The Growth Agenda” report, they say: “In our studies, respondents at enterprises with high levels of alignment across customer-facing functions report 2.4x higher revenue growth than those with some or no alignment. Those same aligned groups benefit from working with IT teams that are 3.7 times more likely to be highly or somewhat aligned with other functions.”

Also consider what new technologies like AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) will bring to the table as part of your drive to improve your business operations and gain a competitive advantage. While you may prefer to develop custom models that work well with your current data sets, keep an eye out for records management application vendors who are incorporating AI directly into their products.

3. Discard complexity

Stop investing in old technology. Make now the time to move on from the cost and complications inherited with legacy systems to consolidate and build better customer facing systems.

Reduce the complexity of your systems of records by ensuring you have a strong ability to retrieve data from your existing systems. This way you can be confident that you can access the data you need in the future – which is especially important if you are in a regulated industry.

For example, in the professional services sector, many organisations are switching to cloud-based records management systems to enable new Business Innovation, and as a result, are shutting down their old on-premise systems. Global Storage customers in this sector trust that their legacy data is secure and recoverable through our range of cloud services, which allows them to move forward and free up old capital and resources.

4. Invest in result

While it’s tempting to adopt one shiny, exciting new solution after another, step back and reconsider. The most important thing about technology is the result, not the way to achieve it.

Keeping this in mind will help you focus on what matters most to the business. For example, Global Storage offers an outcome-based service with strict SLAs that allows our customers to concentrate on innovation within the business. This saves them from getting bogged down in the essential but routine operational tasks and the effort and expense of keeping up with new technology and systems that ultimately add little value to the business.

In summary, building great bridges requires strong foundations – ones that are deep and true to support the weight of change and significant business growth.

Above all, the foundations you lay as CIO should enable fast and complete business recovery following a natural or maliciously contrived disaster.

Global Storage takes out Veeam VCSP Partner of the Year for ANZ

Veeam recently announced their ANZ Partner Awards to celebrate the success of their channel in 2022. Global Storage were delighted to accept the award for Veeam Cloud and Service Provider (VCSP) of the Year for Australia.

Laura Currie, Channel & Alliances Marketing Manager for ANZ commented on the award.

“Your commitment to ongoing growth and valuable insights into our products and programs have truly set you apart. Your dedication to our partnership and active engagement within the Veeam community have significantly contributed to our mutual success.”
Laura Currie

The partner awards celebrated 13 partners across ANZ for their achievement and activity with Veeam in the previous year.

“In the past year, Veeam has made great progress in helping its ANZ partners build their practices, in order to better serve their customers,” said Gary Mitchell, VP of ANZ at Veeam Software. Gary went on to say that “Veeam’s 100 per cent channel model firmly puts Veeam’s partners at the centre of the ecosystem and we are extremely proud to be working with them to provide customers with the resilience, availability, and business outcomes they need. We are thrilled to be able to celebrate their achievements at this year’s ANZ Partner Awards.”

This reward reflects Global Storage’s ongoing commitment to delivering our innovative and secure Back Up and Disaster Recovery as a Service offering.

As a Platinum Veeam VCSP partner we invest in our people with 6 certified Veeam Technical Sales Professionals forming part of our team. With over two decades of data management experience the Global Storage team is uniquely qualified to help companies of all sizes realise agility, efficiency, and intelligent data management across diverse cloud environments.

Global Storage takes out Veeam VCSP Partner of the Year for ANZ

Source: Veeam celebrates A/NZ channel — ARN (arnnet.com.au)

Written in partnership with Veeam.

Cloud: Simplifying an increasingly complex hybrid landscape with confidence

The challenges for today’s CISOs aren’t going away any time soon – especially when it comes to data management, protection and recovery in a multi-cloud or hybrid-cloud environment.

The complexities associated with cloud and tech environments were listed as a top 3 challenge in the Focus Networks Intel Report for the CIO & CISO Leaders Australia Summit 2023. And, according to ARN, cloud spending will top the list in 2024.

So, what does this mean for your organisation and its ability to manage your hybrid cloud environment?

Shouldn’t hybrid cloud be getting easier, not more complex?

You’d think the rush to hybrid cloud would be slowing down by now.

But, says Veeam, in its #1 Hybrid Cloud Backup Guide, hybrid cloud implementations are unlikely to go away. Whether by careful, strategic design or accidental evolution, 92% of businesses already have a hybrid or multi-cloud setup. Regardless of the route taken, hybrid cloud is today’s reality for most organisations.

Hybrid cloud, observes Veeam, no longer means a mix of on-premises and a (single) public cloud. These days, a hybrid environment is more likely to consist of specifically chosen platforms used to serve different purposes. For example, disaster recovery (DR), production, dev-test and more. Meaning there’s more to measure, manage, and protect.

So, it’s easy to see how, over time, the complexity of hybrid cloud – especially in terms of backing it up – has grown, not lessened.

Managing data protection and security is easy (said no one, ever)

As we adopt more modern platforms, the struggle to manage them and their dispersed, often locked-away data grows in the face of ever-evolving cyber threats. And legacy backup solutions won’t cut the mustard. They’re old news, high-risk, and only suitable for dangerously old and high-risk technology environments.

If you have a modern multi-cloud environment, it’s obvious you need to take a modern approach to protecting it. Even then, not all cloud backup solutions on offer are created equal. With the need to back up your physical and virtual machines (VMs), cloud-native infrastructure and platforms, SaaS, and Kubernetes – all of which benefit from purpose-built protection, it can be a big ask. While native backup tooling is available from both first- and third-party vendors, this multi-vendor approach can result in siloed management and often creates more challenges than it overcomes. At a time when the desire is to reduce costs and simplify management, it does the opposite.

Then, there are those public cloud vendors who lock your data into their platforms, meaning you need to compromise on performance, capabilities, and costs rather than embrace a move to a better, more suitable platform.

Multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud environments are now the norm not the exception. So, the need for a single pane of glass approach to data management, protection and recovery is more critical than ever before.

The lowdown on the future of cloud (and what it means for you)

First, let’s look at where cloud is heading. Because above all, as cloud evolves and transforms, you need to consider solutions that will go the distance.

In Forbes’ article on Cloud Computing In 2024: Unveiling Transformations And Opportunities, they open with this bold statement: “The dynamic realm of cloud computing is on the brink of remarkable transformations in 2024, as organizations and service providers brace themselves for an era characterized by innovation, challenges, and unprecedented opportunities.”

Sounds great, but what do they actually mean by this?

In its list of 11 key trends for 2024 – Forbes says the era of one-size-fits-all cloud solutions is on the way out and a more tailored and dynamic approach that combines public and private clouds is in. Hybrid and multi-cloud environments are set to become the new normal for organizations of all sizes – which comes as little surprise to most of us.

More importantly (in the context of this blog), Forbes says that with the shift to multi-cloud environments and serverless computing, IT departments will face novel challenges, including paying more attention to security. While specialised solutions that are designed to help simplify the inherently intricate nature of multi-cloud environments are emerging, Forbes cautions against tools that conceal complexity without genuinely streamlining or reducing it.

More positively, though, Forbes says that AI will optimise cloud management, in a transition from novelty to the norm and bring benefits, including streamlined overall cloud operations.

Another trend Forbes noted (one that’s far from new in a world strapped for skilled technology resources) is the challenge of bridging a skills gap as cloud adoption increases. Meaning solutions that reduce the need for specialised cloud-computing professionals will be welcomed with open arms.

So, where to from here?

Given the challenges, what’s important when considering a data protection, management, and security platform to support your ever-evolving hybrid-cloud environment?

Centralised management. Drive efficiency and reduce costs with a single view of all environments and just one toolset.
The ability to support everything. As hybrid environments grow in complexity, look for a solution that natively supports everything from SaaS to physical servers, Kubernetes, and more.
Own your own data. Eliminate data lock-in with a solution that allows you to move data freely across your infrastructure so it’s available where and when you need it.
Only use and pay for what you need. Choose a solution that allows you to cherry-pick the components you need without financial or licensing penalties.
A seamless experience. Protect, manage, and recover your hybrid cloud environment with a platform that delivers what it promises without downtime, data loss, or compromise.

Hybrid cloud offers benefits and challenges in equal measure – something we deal with daily. Reach out to Global Storage for an obligation-free chat about how we can help you simplify the complex.