Navigating Regulatory Compliance with IBM Storage Defender and IBM FlashSystem
Ensuring compliance with a complex web of regulations is no longer optional but critical to survival. From Europe’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) and the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) in the US—as well as similar frameworks in Asia, Latin America, and other regions—these regulations enforce strict requirements for data protection, incident response, and operational resilience.
Failing to meet regulatory requirements can result in fines, reputational damage, and operational disruptions that jeopardize business continuity. But at the same time, compliance presents opportunities to strengthen security and build trust. By aligning operations with regulatory standards, organizations not only mitigate risks but also enhance resilience, demonstrating a proactive commitment to safeguarding data and ensuring smooth operations.
Given the complexity of the regulatory landscape and the evolving threat environment, organizations need solutions that not only ensure compliance but also strengthen overall security and resilience. The powerful combination of IBM Storage Defender and IBM FlashSystem offers a comprehensive approach to overcoming these compliance challenges, delivering the following key data resilience capabilities:
Uncompromised Data Protection
IBM FlashSystem offers protection through safeguarded copies, which are isolated from production environments and cannot be modified or deleted due to user error, malicious actions, or ransomware attacks. Storage Defender leverages these safeguarded copies, stored within IBM FlashSystem, to recover workloads directly from these secure, immutable copies. This significantly reduces the time required to resume critical business operations. Data transfers are performed through the SAN using Fibre Channel (FC) or iSCSI, ensuring faster and more secure recovery without relying on traditional network paths.
AI-Powered Threat Detection
Storage Defender combines software sensors at the file system level with IBM FlashSystem’s inline data corruption detection (IDCD) through IBM Storage Insights Pro, allowing potential threats to be continuously monitored and detected in under a minute. This dual-source approach feeds more data into machine learning models, resulting in faster, more accurate threat detection while minimizing false positives.
Dual-source threat detection for faster and more accurate results
Rapid Threat Response and Recovery
When a threat is detected on a virtual machine, Storage Defender swiftly correlates the impacted Virtual Machines with the latest verified IBM FlashSystem volume. This ensures that the most recent, trusted recovery point is readily available, expediting near-instant recovery and helping organizations comply with fast recovery regulations and recovery time objectives (RTO).
Proactive Recovery Testing
Storage Defender conducts automated recovery tests using IBM FlashSystem volumes, ensuring compliance with governance and regulatory mandates. These tests validate recovery plans and backup integrity, updating the status of recovery groups to maintain readiness for real-world disaster recovery scenarios.
Streamlined Collaboration and Threat Response
Integration with IBM QRadar, Splunk, and other SIEM solutions facilitates seamless communication between infrastructure, security, and operations teams. Critical threat data and alerts are automatically shared, enabling faster, more informed decision-making and coordinated threat response and recovery actions, while ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements for data governance and information sharing.
Security and High Availability for Business Continuity
This combined solution provides end-to-end encryption to protect data at rest and in transit, coupled with Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to ensure only authorized personnel have access. Quorum approvals add an extra layer of security by requiring multiple authorizations for critical actions. Additionally, remote replication enhances disaster recovery capabilities by securely replicating data to offsite locations, ensuring business continuity no matter the scale of the disaster.
As organizations around the world face increasing regulatory demands and a rapidly evolving threat landscape, safeguarding sensitive data goes beyond basic protection. Achieving compliance requires a comprehensive strategy that strengthens both security and operational resilience. The combined capabilities of IBM Storage Defender and IBM FlashSystem provide a robust solution to address these challenges. By integrating advanced data protection, AI-driven threat detection, and efficient recovery processes, organizations can not only meet global compliance standards but also enhance their overall security posture and ensure business continuity. With IBM, businesses are empowered to protect their data and thrive in today’s complex regulatory environment.
If you'd like to know more about how Storage Defender and IBM FlashSystem can help you meet regulatory demands and protect your data, join our webinar on November 19th at 10:00 AM EST. Register here.