It sometimes feels like we are living in the age of the reboot.  If you’re a fan of the hit TV show “That 70’s Show,” you know that it’s all about a group of friends navigating the challenges of adolescence in the 1970s and that it’s been rebooted (and updated to the 90s) on a popular streaming service. 

And it’s not alone.  From the good (Cobra Kai anyone?) to the not so popular (did anyone actually see the Knight Rider remake??) there is always an appetite for an update which reflects the current environment and challenges.

That sentiment can also be applied to your organization’s data management and protection strategy – to ensure it stays current and effective in an ever-changing world of emerging technologies and cyber threats.

With a new year and a fresh perspective, see if any of the below signs resonate with you. If so, you may be in a great place to put together a plan to reboot your approach to data in the Modern Cloud Era:

• Outdated & mismatched technologies: Just like the characters on the show were stuck in the 1970s, your data management and protection strategy may be relying on a “frakenstack” of mismatched and outdated technologies that sprawled organically but are now stuck in time and are no longer effective in today’s modern multi-cloud world. It’s important to regularly review and update your technology strategy to ensure that your approach to data growth and retention is not only purposeful and effective, but also provides you powerful protection and controls from the best tools available.
• Uncertainty around shared responsibility obligations with Cloud Providers and SaaS Applications: If you don’t have a solid understanding of what your obligations are to protect your data under the shared responsibility model, you could end up losing days, weeks, or even months of valuable insights in the event of a disaster situation. In the show, the characters often found themselves in sticky situations that could have been avoided with proper situational awareness & planning. The same is true for your organization’s off-prem data.
• Insufficient access controls: Whether resulting from innocent human error, or malicious bad actors, your data management and protection measures can often be wide open to catastrophic incident if users have too large a sandbox to play in. Our crew of misfits in “That 70’s Show” often found themselves in trouble due to a lack of boundaries and rules. The same is true for your organization’s data. With proper access controls in place, your data is more protected, your risk profiler is smaller, and you can rest easy knowing that it’s that much harder to have a major incident due to unauthorized individual actions.
• Lack of employee & org leader education: Just like the characters on the show needed guidance and direction, your employees and cross-functional partners need to be educated on best practices for data protection. Without proper education, your organization is at risk of data breaches and other cybersecurity threats. Do all of your cross-functional partners (HR, Sales, Operations, Dev Ops, etc.) understand the implications and limitations of native SaaS applications and cloud services? Do they have a trusted partner in the IT function to ensure that their workloads are secure and backed up to cover any gaps in the service provider’s shared responsibility model while simultaneously providing upline leadership a single view of all of their distributed corporate data across all platforms and form-factors?

If any of these signs apply to your organization, it’s time to think about giving your data protection strategy a refresh.

Just like “That 70’s Show” has stood the test of time, a solid data protection strategy can help your organization stay current and protect its sensitive information. Don’t get stuck in the past – take action to ensure your data is safe and secure.