I’ve been doing a lot of travelling lately and talking to lots of folks about data encryption and SecureDoc specifically. It’s always interesting to get a sense of people’s perceptions around the topic and key areas of interest like Self Encrypting Drives (SEDs).
Typically when I’m doing these info sessions and talking to partners and customers there are common questions I ask with which I expect a typical response. For instance:
“Does your organization currently use data at rest encryption?” The answer is typically a mix of yes and no. But most recently, and refreshingly, the answer was 100 per cent yes at a session I went to this week. It was the first time I was in a room where every organization in the room said they used encryption.
“Does your organization currently use or is evaluating SEDs?” Typical response is a few sheepish hands of acknowledgement. If it’s a partner, it’s usually the majority of people in the room that know of SEDs and what they do at a high level.
Despite the surprising answers on the past couple of trips, there was something that really struck me about organizations that all said they used encryption. Specifically that a number of the organizations used more than one data encryption solution. This struck me as a complex and wholly unnecessary way to secure the data within their company. Fragmented data security solutions lead to fragmented reporting and inconsistent asset tracking and furthermore, loopholes that could lead to data breaches despite best efforts.
Standardizing on one management solution with a single console that can manage all data encryption within the enterprise; software encryption, hardware encryption, OS-based encryption etc. should be a priority and mandate for any large organization. Not only is it more cost-effective, it’s more secure and easy to manage from an IT administration standpoint.
That said, its great running into these organizations so we can talk about the power of a single console with SecureDoc and how to drive down TCO through the use of technology like PBConnex.
