Data security outfit WinMagic has been asking around 1,000 IT Decision Makers and found that a lot of them are worried about the complexity of setting up hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI).
While lost of them liked the concept the survey highlighted concerns around expanding their use of HCI, with complexity leading at 45 percent and security a close second (43 percent).
Currently, only 15 percent of respondents’ report having any HCI technology in their infrastructure. The HCI market is expected to expand, with Gartner stating that “By 2021, Hyper-Converged integrated systems (HCIS) will represent 54 percent of total converged infrastructure shipments by revenue, with HCIS reaching $10.8 billion.”
The survey found that deployed with the correct controls HCI can be one of the best ways to simplify data centre infrastructure. However, its dynamic nature and reliance on virtual machines create challenges such as how to unify security and control data sprawl as IT departments struggle to maintain control as workloads expand.
Decision makers highlighted four areas making them reluctant to include HCI as part of their future infrastructure plans:
o Increased complexity of IT infrastructure (45 percent)
o Maintaining security across HCI environments (43 percent
o Maintaining management control as HCI scales across the business (39 percent)
o The lack of an ability to manage virtual machines in hybrid environments (34 percent)
A quarter of respondents admitted to not limiting access to the control planes of their Hyper-Converged Infrastructure. Rather than encrypting individual workloads, many are merely encrypting the whole platform, ignoring the need for encryption and access controls to specific sensitive datasets. The result is that unfettered access may be given to workloads that should be geo- or time restricted, leaving a company at risk of breaking its governance, regulatory and compliance obligations.
Also, there were other areas of concern relating to security when using HCIs, such as:
o Having a security solution that scales with needs (29 percent)
o Ensuring compatibility with any hypervisor technology (23 percent)
o Maintaining identity access management and authentication (22 percent)
Winmagic chief operating officer Mark Hickman said that hyper-Converged Infrastructure offers a wide range of benefits for IT departments and they want to embrace the technology, but often the security and management concerns make it feel like a risky investment.
“The truth is the benefits can be easily realised by IT teams, if a unified approach is taken to security and management, through a single tool where they are dependent, not separate tasks. In reality, this approach should extend beyond the hyperconverged hardware to the whole infrastructure whether on-premises or in the cloud. WinMagic SecureDoc Enterprise offers 100% encryption of endpoints, data centre and cloud workloads with a single platform, meaning data is protected across the enterprise while IT leaders are free to deliver the enormous benefits of hyperconvergence.”
