Enterprise Cloud FEATURED ARTICLE

Cloud-based services and software are an increasingly large part of our everyday work lives. There are more applications and more use cases for cloud-based systems than ever before, and now, a new combined effort in the market is about to make cloud operations simpler and safer than ever. The combined effort brings together Virtustream and Iron Mountain (News - Alert) Incorporated, coupling Iron Mountain's storage with Virtustream's security mechanisms.

Iron Mountain is set to incorporate both Virtustream's xStream and Viewtrust systems as a means to better deliver the cloud-based services that Iron Mountain has on offer. With the Virtustream systems, reports suggest it will be faster and easier to not only automate but also secure the releases. Since xStream is an integration management system allowing access to IT-as-a-service, and Viewtrust is more of a security measure, Iron Mountain will be able to bring out its offerings in accordance with several security frameworks. Reports note that the line will not only be compliant with Payment Card Industry (PCI (News - Alert)) Data Security Standard (DSS) version 3.0, but also with ISO 9001-2008, SSAE16, and several others.

General manager for data management and senior vice president at Iron Mountain Eileen Sweeney commented “Changes in technology and business processes are challenging the most progressive companies to adopt new strategies to handle the resulting explosion of high value data. To enable our customers to adapt their data management processes to these challenges, we are embracing technology and offering clients a hybrid approach to manage all types of data, through various stages of the data lifecycle. Partnerships with companies like Virtustream provide the technology foundation to offer an advanced portfolio of solutions that will enable our customers, regardless of size or budget, to adopt cloud services to advance their data management agendas.”

It's great to have access to cloud-based services, but unless those services are properly secured, they represent little more than a potential failure point for security and one more way for a particularly ambitious hacker to breach a system. No one wants that, so having extra security is vital to keeping these new tools protected and not serving as a new backdoor. The combined effort seen here should represent not only a great way to offer the tools businesses increasingly desire, but in a fashion that prevents these from being more trouble than they're worth in the end.

Combined efforts between firms  have long been a great way to get the best of at least two worlds, and with Iron Mountain and Virtustream working together, not only will users get impressive tools, but users will also get these tools safely, preventing future problems from cropping up.