Dell Fortifies Data Security with New On-Premises Cloud and Storage Solutions
In today’s complex digital landscape, businesses face a critical challenge: how to harness the agility of the public cloud while maintaining the security, control, and cost predictability of on-premises infrastructure. Responding to this need, Dell Technologies is rolling out a powerful suite of new solutions designed to create secure private clouds and harden storage systems against sophisticated cyber threats like ransomware.
These advancements focus on providing organizations with the tools to build a resilient and modern data center, grounded in the principles of zero-trust security.
Bringing the Hybrid Cloud Home with APEX
The line between the public cloud and the private data center is becoming increasingly blurred. Many organizations want a consistent operational experience across both environments. To meet this demand, Dell is expanding its APEX portfolio with solutions that bring the cloud experience directly into your own data center.
A key announcement is the Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure, an integrated, turnkey system that enables businesses to run Azure’s cloud services on-premises. This platform is built on Dell’s advanced infrastructure and deeply integrated with Microsoft’s Azure Stack HCI. The primary benefits include:
- Unified Management: Businesses can use familiar Azure tools to manage both their on-premises and public cloud workloads.
- Enhanced Security and Governance: Keeping data on-premises allows organizations to meet strict data sovereignty, compliance, and security requirements.
- Optimized Performance: The platform is engineered for high performance and reliability, ensuring demanding applications run smoothly.
By extending the Azure environment into the private data center, companies gain greater control over their data without sacrificing the automation and scalability they expect from the cloud.
A Multi-Layered Defense for Mission-Critical Storage
Data is the lifeblood of any organization, making storage systems a primary target for cyberattacks. Recognizing this, Dell has introduced significant security enhancements to its flagship PowerStore and PowerMax storage arrays, creating a robust defense against ransomware and other threats.
These new features are designed to protect, detect, and respond to malicious activity with a zero-trust mindset.
Key storage security enhancements include:
- Immutable Snapshots: PowerStore now offers tamper-proof snapshots that cannot be modified or deleted, even by an administrator with full privileges. This is a critical last line of defense, ensuring a clean copy of data is available for recovery after a ransomware attack.
- Hardware Root of Trust: New security protocols establish a cryptographic chain of trust throughout the boot process, ensuring the system’s firmware has not been compromised.
- Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Administrative access to PowerStore and PowerMax systems can now be secured with MFA, adding a vital layer of protection against credential theft.
- STIG Hardening: Both storage platforms now adhere to the Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) published by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). This strengthens the system against known vulnerabilities and aligns with the highest security standards used by the U.S. government.
These features collectively build a cyber vault-like environment for your most critical data, making it significantly harder for attackers to succeed.
Actionable Security Tips for Your Infrastructure
While these new tools provide a powerful foundation, proactive security practices remain essential. Here are a few steps every organization should take:
- Implement the Principle of Least Privilege: Ensure users and administrators only have access to the data and systems absolutely necessary for their roles.
- Regularly Test Your Recovery Plan: Don’t wait for an attack to find out if your backups work. Regularly test your ability to restore from snapshots and other backups.
- Enable MFA Everywhere: Apply multi-factor authentication to all critical systems, not just your storage arrays. This includes network devices, hypervisors, and management consoles.
- Segment Your Network: Isolate critical storage systems from the broader network to limit the potential blast radius of an attack.
The Future of Data Management: Intelligent Placement
Looking ahead, Dell also previewed Project Harmony, a new software initiative focused on intelligent data placement. This future capability will automate the process of moving data across different on-premises and multi-cloud environments. The software will analyze the specific needs of an application—performance, security, and cost—and automatically place its data on the most appropriate storage infrastructure, whether that’s an on-premises PowerStore array or a public cloud service.
In an era of escalating cyber threats and complex hybrid environments, these advancements provide a clear path forward. By reinforcing on-premises infrastructure with cloud-native operations and a zero-trust security framework, organizations can build a more resilient, manageable, and secure foundation for their digital future.
Source: https://datacenternews.asia/story/dell-unveils-private-cloud-storage-updates-to-boost-security
