BandL Weblog

Social Media, Compliance and the Law: Part 1

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One area of data management that we’ve seen our clients challenged by, especially over the past year or so, is the need to manage the volumes of data produced by social media. The two main questions they’re wrestling with are: 

1. How do emerging legal and compliance requirements apply to our business’ social media activities?
   
   
2. Once we understand what we need to do, how do we capture, manage and store social media content to meet these requirements in a way that is also practical for our business?

A quick Google search tells me our clients are not alone: These questions are on the minds of business and IT managers everywhere, particularly those in firms that are part of regulated industries like finance and pharma. Why do these questions loom so large for a growing number of organizations?

First of all, the courts have ruled that social media is both discoverable and admissible in a legal case. Recently, courts have even ordered disclosure of non-publicly available, “friends-only” data. While the rules around social media content and e-discovery are still emerging, what’s clear is that organizations have “a duty to preserve relevant or potentially relevant information once litigation is pending or reasonably anticipated as long as it is in your custody or control,” according to the Social Media Law Blog. When you add in the fact that failing to preserve data from third-party sites like Twitter and Facebook can result in significant court sanctions, the urgency around systematically capturing and managing social media becomes clear.

If that’s not enough, companies in state or federally regulated industries have it tougher—they’re required to maintain and demonstrate compliance in all media, including the social variety. For example, according to Business Insider, FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority), which regulates securities firms, applies “old media” standards to new media interactions—likening Twitter content to advertisements and Facebook sites to sales literature—creating a whole world of complexity for organizations. And that’s just in this one vertical. Other regulated sectors are grappling with how to meet similar mandates.

There’s no cut-and-dried solution to these novel challenges. But firms are beginning to find their way. In an upcoming post or two, I’ll talk more about how firms are dealing with these challenges.

But what do you think. How can the industries stay compliant while dealing with the deluge of social media data? 

Read Social Media, Compliance and the Law: Part 2

Top 5 Data Center Videos Worth Watching

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For the visual learners out there, I’ve put together a list of the top five data center videos currently on YouTube. Check these out and feel free to add to this list by posting links in the comments section. Oh, and while you’re catching up on your data center videos, be sure to check out this new one from yours truly, B&L Associates. 

1. Active Archive Alliance and Technology Overview

Active archiving is a topic I’ve discussed here in great detail, and will continue to cover as the concept of giving users direct, online access to archived data stored cost-effectively on tape continues to take off. This video does a great job of illustrating what active archiving is all about and how it works.

 

2. Facebook’s New Energy Efficient Data Center

As more and more data and applications move to the cloud, businesses are recognizing the need to make cloud storage as energy efficient as possible. This video gives you an inside look at Facebook’s truly state-of-the-art facility and how the site is working to become greener.

  

3. Google Data Center Efficiency Best Practices

Google’s data center experts share five best practices for improving efficiency, from measuring power usage effectiveness every second if possible to adjusting the thermostat.

  

4. Find the Best-Fit Backup Architecture Strategy

This clip reviews how tape, disk and cloud can coexist and complement each other as part of a backup strategy that is tailored to meet an organization’s specific business needs. 

 

5. Life in the Data Center

Just for laughs, episode 1 and episode 2 are goofy spoofs on life in the data center before the advent of green data centers.

 

  

Seen any data center videos worth watching lately? Let us know by posting a comment.

 

Vendors Showing Support for LTFS

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IBM’s Linear Tape File System, or LTFS, is just a year old, but it already has proven that you can teach an old dog—in this case, tape—new tricks. In fact, the IT cognoscenti predict that LTFS will give tape quite the data-archiving pedigree.

Now, vendors are starting to roll out products that support LTFS and take advantage of its unique characteristics to make it easier to write and read archived data. For starters, IBM, Oracle and HP have added, or at least announced plans to add, LTFS support to their tape libraries.

Beyond basic tape library support, vendors are starting to leverage LTFS in their up-and-coming data archiving products. For example, Crossroads Systems Inc. plans to launch its StrongBox network-attached storage for tape with LTFS support later this year. The product will take advantage of LTFS’s ability to enable access to archived data on tape without archiving software. In addition, Quantum Corp. plans to add to its StorNext software the ability to import from and export to LTFS tapes. Cache-A also supports LTFS across its archive appliances for media and entertainment companies.

All of this activity goes to show that LTFS is a real innovation, one that will make archiving data cost-effectively on tape simpler, easier and faster. The response so far from the marketplace is proof positive that LTFS, in combination with LTO-5 tape, has the potential to change for good the way the industry views and uses tape. We already know tape’s strong suit: long-term storage and archiving. LTFS’s unique characteristics, leveraged in these and many other products to come, make it easier to tap into tape’s strengths—helping to position it as a true long-term storage and archiving superstar.

When teamed with an effective tape management system and disk, LTFS’s open nature and ability to simplify data storage just might make it an active archive’s best friend.

Will Cloud Storage Be the End of Tape Storage?

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A recent Storage Magazine article asked this question: “Does the advent of cloud-based infrastructure and applications mean tape is finally going away?”

After all, the author, Terri McClure, states, the cloud seems to offer many of tape’s advantages—namely, cost-effectiveness and suitability for long-term storage—without taking up physical space. So, isn’t the cloud just one more sign of tape’s impending demise? McClure’s answer: “A definite no.” In her opinion, tape has an important role to play and can and should happily coexist with cloud solutions for the foreseeable future. I couldn’t agree more.

Consider the advantages of tape: cost-efficiency, added security, scalability, reliability and long shelf life. When you think about how to back up data that’s stored in the cloud, tape quickly presents itself as the leading candidate.

What makes tape the perfect complement to cloud storage? As McClure points out, the cloud provides physical protection, while tape provides “logical” protection—that is, protection from human error and system bugs. And not only is tape well suited to transferring data to the cloud or migrating between cloud service providers, it also addresses the security and privacy concerns that surround cloud storage.

Growing adoption of the cloud doesn’t signal the arrival of the grim reaper for tape. Just the opposite: The advantages tape offers as a backup to the cloud are just more proof that tape isn’t dead, doesn’t suck and has an ongoing role to play in strategic data storage.

How will you back up the cloud? 

 

The Tablet Takeoff: How to Protect Your Data

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No doubt about it, tablets are hot. And as the tablet’s cool factor continues to rise and tablet pricing begins to put these devices in the hands of the many, they’re becoming even hotter. Increasingly, users are looking for business reasons to move the tablet from the family room to the board room, to make it less of a toy and more of a tool. This trend is driving a growing demand to integrate the tablet into the enterprise.

With employees ranging from the office power user to the CEO clamoring for tablets in the workplace, IT has a role to play in helping the enterprise contain its excitement about tablets, at least long enough to approach their integration in a logical, thoughtful way that keeps data well managed and protected. 

Tablets present a few challenges that IT will need to help the organization work through. Namely, like any mobile device, tablets will add to the growing volumes of data the organization must store and protect. Also like any mobile device, the tablet’s portability makes these growing volumes of data more vulnerable to loss or security threats.

With this in mind, the overall challenge that tablets present is this: How can IT balance user demands for the latest technology with the overriding need to protect the company’s valuable data? For starters:

• Proactively develop and enforce a policy that specifically governs tablet use. Clearly state specific user requirements and limits, from security settings to restrictions on personal use.
  
  
• Don’t store data on the device. Allow users to access applications through virtualization and web portals that eliminate the need for tablets to retain data. For e-mail, use a mobile device management solution to manage the device and provide a way to wipe the device clean of company data if it’s lost, stolen or disabled.
  
  
• Store data securely and economically on tape. As tablets add to the data explosion, companies will need a cost-effective way to store this added volume. Tape, especially as part of an active archive strategy, can meet this need. As your library grows, you might want to consider using tape tracking software to organize backups better.

Don’t wait for a data breach to raise questions about how your data is protected. Get in front of the challenges that tablets raise, help the organization take a deep breath in the midst of the tablet frenzy, and proactively define your protection and retention strategy as it relates to tablets.

What does the adoption curve look like so far for tablets in your organization? And what new challenges do you see tablets presenting for IT?

 

Are You Ready for the New HIPAA Audits?

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Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it has appointed KPMG as the official HIPAA privacy and security auditor. Under the contract, KPMG could conduct as many as 150 audits by the end of next year.

While 150 audits in the next year-and-a-half might not sound like a lot, for organizations considered “covered entities” under HIPAA, the significance is this: The KPMG contract marks the first step toward a proactive, structured HIPAA audit program with a target number of audits. Up to this point, HHS has conducted HIPAA investigations or reviews only when it receives a complaint or a media report of suspected noncompliance. So, last week’s announcement is effectively another wakeup call for organizations to assess their HIPAA compliance programs and take steps to fill any gaps, ASAP.

The announcement from HHS leaves lots of unanswered questions, points out Adam Greene of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP in a recent blog post that provides a comprehensive look at what last week’s news means. In addition to the excellent list of questions Greene raises, I add one more: Are you ready? If your business is one of the lucky few selected for a HIPAA audit, will you pass? What would the findings look like?

Greene also suggests some important next steps to help make sure that your business is ready—assessing your privacy and security programs by checking policies and procedures, reviewing staff training and conducting site visits, among others. Included in this review should be steps we’ve suggested in the past: Proactive testing and adjustment of archival procedures to satisfy HIPAA requirements. Simple IT security measures to ensure data integrity. A data retention policy and practices that include a methodology and tools to locate specific media—both online and offline—quickly and painlessly. (It so happens that our Vertices and VaultLedger products make it easy to manage storage media across your enterprise and include the capability to create comprehensive audit reports.)

While many questions remain about the details of the HHS audit program, one thing is clear: There’s a new HIPAA cop on the beat, and organizations would do well to prepare in advance for the small, yet all-too-serious, possibility of a HIPAA compliance audit.

What are you doing to stay compliant?

Active Archiving: The Basics

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If I had to put my finger on the biggest buzz for the data storage industry so far this year, I’d say “active” and “archive” are the words on everyone’s lips. Active archive is a concept that’s been picking up steam over the course of this year so far, and for good reason.

Wondering what active archive is all about? Here are the basics.

Active archive is “a combined solution of open systems applications, disk and tape hardware that allows users to access all of their data, and gives you an effortless means to store and manage all of your data,” according to the Active Archive Alliance.

To put it even more simply, George Crump of Storage Switzerland has defined active archive as “essentially putting a file system front end to a tape library. This means that users and applications can interact with the tape library in similar fashion as they do a disk array.”

In other words, organizations can make data readily accessible without footing the bill for, and managing the overwhelming process of, storing every kilobyte of data—both frequently accessed and inactive—online. Companies can store only the most frequently accessed data on disk and the rest on tape—a medium that’s relatively inexpensive, reliable and well suited for storing masses of data for the long term.

It’s no surprise that active archiving is welcome news as the data explosion continues and we search for efficient, cost-effective ways to corral and store those seemingly infinite volumes of data. As data growth continues to accelerate, I predict that more and more organizations will turn to active archives incorporating tape as part of the solution. 

What's your thoughts on active archive? Do you see value in this approach? let us know in the comments section.

 

The Top 5 Blog Posts from June

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Summer seems to have come out of nowhere this year. I thought it might be nice to look back at June and share with you our five most popular blog posts, just in case you missed them.

With Tape, Think Resurgence, Not Requiem
The discussion is no longer about disk versus tape but about the significant role that tape plays in today’s data center, and how ongoing innovation will secure its role in the data center of the future. And that's why with tape you should be thinking resurgence, not requiem. 

 

4 Irrefutable Facts that Prove Tape Is More Reliable Than Disk
Tape’s reliability as a long-term storage medium already has plenty of proof to back it up. Now, we can add to that growing body of evidence some scientific facts.

 

The Business Case for Active Archiving on Tape
The numbers speak volumes on this one. And if you’re trying to start a conversation about active archiving in your organization, simply quantifying what you’re spending to manage inactive data in production is a surefire way to get some attention on the topic.

 

LTO-6: The Next Generation of Tape
LTO-6 is coming, proving again that the tape storage industry is not just surviving but flourishing with new technology and new products.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Solve the Big Challenge of Big Data: Part 1
Big Data is an intimidating prospect for any self-respecting backup application. Nevertheless, CIOs are embracing these mountains of large, complex and dynamic data sets because they contain a treasure trove of valuable business insights and information.