Perusing the newsfeeds about anything involving the government and the Internet might make you feel a bit uncomfortable. It should, as the news hasn’t exactly been all that good lately, and more recent headlines tell us that the government is looking to consolidate its data centers. Maybe that is a bit beyond your scope of knowledge, but here’s why it’s a bit risky.
Opengear (News - Alert) CEO Rick Stevenson penned a piece over at Nextgov and discussed at length why this cost-saving idea poses some dangers. While it’s nice that Washington is being mindful of tax dollars, in most circumstances consolidation is a pretty good idea. But for a project this large, it all comes down to managing and mitigating risk.
Storage consolidation is the practice of simplifying the storage infrastructure, allowing storage administrators to increase organization of and control over their storage resources. The need for storage consolidation stems from the fact that storage needs keep growing.
One of the biggest downfalls of storage consolidation is potential security vulnerabilities and the strain it puts on the facility itself. However, storage consolidation promises management efficiency, since there are fewer storage platforms to manage. So how can the government mitigate security risks? After all, the public is none too confident in the Edward Snowden era. It’s all about network monitoring.
“Monitoring data centers and networks remotely and out-of-band, via cellular or modem connections, speeds up resolution times – potentially reducing latencies that could be downright critical for our government,” writes Stevenson.
Using an out of band infrastructure offers monitoring access and control efficiencies that ensure IT services are available when the business needs them, or in this case, the federal government.
The ever-evolving technology and increasing business challenges like virtualization, server and data center consolidation require a robust server-monitoring solution that includes monitoring of virtual resources. Out-of-band approaches can help the government mitigate risk and keep things secure.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson