How You Can Keep Your Data Safe Without Making Copies

When you factor in accidental deletions, hardware and power failures, file corruption, data sprawl, natural catastrophes, and corrupt backup files, there are a lot of ways you can lose your data. For an architectural, engineering or construction firm, that could mean weeks or months of project time lost to rebuild those files.

Keeping data safe has historically been achieved by making two or three backup copies and storing them in different locations in case something happens to your files. Not only does that create more files to manage, but restoring from those backups can have its own issues.

However, if you’re using the cloud and the right global file system, one set of data is all you need. In the recent Panzura webinar, “One Copy to Rule Them All,” the presenters explained that you can achieve data resilience with Panzura and Microsoft Azure cloud storage, with the bonus effect of preempting ransomware attacks. The combination allows you to retain the ability to restore files quickly and easily without data loss.

As opposed to some solutions, Panzura was designed to be used with cloud storage. The Panzura global file system uses public, private or dark cloud storage as a single authoritative data source. As the Director of IT Security at one full-service engineering firm explained, “If we wanted to stay competitive in the AEC market, we needed to go to the next step. And that’s why we went to Panzura.”

Azure cloud data replication provides durability, and Panzura data snapshots and immutability deliver near zero recovery point objective (RPO). So, IT teams need not be required to spend time making backup copies and managing them in preparation for disaster recovery.

Panzura has built-in intelligence that locks files when they are in use. It uses a “write once, read many” approach, storing unstructured data in object storage as unchangeable data blocks. Only one user can edit a file at a time, and everyone with access to that file can see the edits. Once written, the data can’t be modified, encrypted or overwritten. Further, deleting files can only be done through a secure erase process that cannot be run accidentally. With Panzura’s versioning feature, users have immediate access for business continuity, but they won’t overwrite each other’s work. It also stores changed files as new, unchangeable objects, providing ransomware protection.

In a situation where you are not using Panzura, Azure cloud storage offers unchangeable blobs to store your data. They can’t be deleted or overwritten, giving you data integrity, protection against failures, as well as multiple models to fit your company’s situation. This enables you to comply with regulatory obligations, keep retained documents secure and place tamper-proof holds on data for legal requirements.

The webinar explained that Azure has ways to protect your storage account from deletion by employees or attacks by bad actors, including:

• Role-based Access Control and Locks
• Defender
• HTTPS (hypertext transfer protocol secure)
• Storage Firewall
• Immutability
• Encryption

You can keep your data safe and ward off ransomware attacks by using Panzura and Microsoft Azure cloud storage. One set of data is all you’ll need when you are using the right combination of cloud and global file system.

To find out more about using Panzura for data security, reach out to the experts of the Applied Software Digital Transformation Team and start a conversation with one of the Panzura experts.