As someone who has enjoyed spending time with many a DBA (database administrator) over the years, and for better or worse has spun up a fair few DBMS (Database Management System) himself, I’m excited and also just a little scared of the potential that the hybrid cloud holds.
It is exciting to think about all the possibilities hybrid cloud environments bring. Imagine, Database power at scale. Whenever, wherever, elastic with built-in failover and load balancing. No more long provisioning cycles, masses of approvals and justifications to get that new hardware. Everything is available at a moment’s notice and ready to help the business grow. In short, it’s any application developers dream come true and most DBA’s nightmare.
No matter which research, the trend is clear. Enterprise Databases are moving to the cloud, but what will end up lurking in the dark?
The management of DBMS instances in any organization is already challenging as it is. Not knowing exactly how many Databases exist at any given time is far too common, making it next to impossible to manage the risk appropriately. Making sure potential vulnerabilities are patched or at least can not be exploited (SQL Injections, misconfigured instances, weak account passwords etc) is the standard cat and mouse game of every DBA. On top of that, there is data protection. Monitoring and auditing access to the organization’s most valuable data has become one of the biggest challenges organizations face.
Location, Location, Location – Is not important!
Unlike in real estate, location really isn’t important. Monitoring the database workload and how many instances, databases, and servers are spun up must follow the same rigor in the cloud as it does within the on-premise datacenter.
The monitoring of suspicious requests that may indicate malicious behavior to the DBMS needs to follow the same policies, rules, and possibilities in the cloud as on-premises. Intercepting and stopping malicious connections has to be possible across the whole infrastructure – from on-premises to cloud.
Last but by no means least, auditing and monitoring of sensitive information, whether that is PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOX or PII data must be seamless between on premise and any cloud instance.
Once these cross-locational policies and monitoring capabilities are in place, the hybrid database environment turns indeed into a fast lane, allowing businesses to scale much faster and much more seamlessly than ever before.
McAfee is helping to fill the need in this hybrid environment by offering a software-based Database Security solution that allows the monitoring of database instances across both on-premise and the cloud. Non-intrusive, lightweight and easy to deploy, McAfee’s Database Security allows customers to enjoy all the exciting benefits of moving to a hybrid cloud enterprise database environment, while retaining control over security, risk and data protection.
For more information, head over to the product information page here.
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Article Link: https://securingtomorrow.mcafee.com/business/cloud-security/the-cloud-crossroads-or-fast-lane-for-enterprise-databases/