Businesses around the world are rapidly embracing big data as the most effective tool for gaining insights on their customers or clients as well as current market conditions. Big data decreases costs, facilitates product development, helps companies manage their reputation, and gives them a competitive edge.
Yet, with all these benefits, big data also comes with unique challenges. One of the most important is the need for increased attention to server management processes. Here’s why it matters.
Data Is Gleaned from Widely Varied Sources
The information collected through big data systems comes from a multitude of internet sources including social media, blogs, and clickstreams. This data is largely unstructured, so protecting it is a more complex process.
For many small and medium-sized companies, all this information is stored and analyzed in the cloud, where it must be kept safe from attacks. But, regardless of whether you store the data in the cloud or in your own data center, your servers must handle it securely so that you can access and use it at your location.
Breaches Are Massive
Big data is big. In fact, it’s so monumental it’s almost unimaginable.
When you use big data, you’re taking a significant risk that that massive quantity of information could be compromised.
One small mishandling of data by a single employee can put the security of all that data in jeopardy. A major breach of the system can potentially expose that incredible amount of data instantaneously and irrevocably. If that happens, your reputation will plummet, you’ll face serious legal problems, and it’s very likely that your business won’t survive. Proper server management decreases the risk that your system will be breached.
You Need Extra-Strong Security Measures to Protect Individuals
Because so much information is coming in from so many different sources, it’s impossible to make specific data anonymous. That means that your servers process very personal data about private individuals who can be identified by you or anyone who accesses it through your computer network.
Data encryption is increasingly important. Homomorphic encryption, an emerging encryption solution well-suited for use with big data, may be needed to protect the data while allowing it to be accessed appropriately. Additionally, authentication and revocation functions must be managed effectively.
Privacy Protections Can Drag Down System Performance
The many security measures you must take to protect the privacy of individuals can create a significant drag on the system if not handled efficiently. Your servers’ performance can lag, disrupting your entire network and impacting any or every part of your computer systems. And when your systems aren’t working smoothly and effectively, your productivity and profitability can fall dramatically in a very short time.
You’re legally required and ethically bound to protect individuals’ data and use it responsibly. For that, you need servers that are reliable, secure, and adequate for the job. And, you need to manage those servers in a way that protects the data with as little impact on the system’s performance as possible.
No SQL Databases Weren’t Designed for Security
Many companies move to a NoSQL database once they begin using big data. These databases are great for handling unstructured data. Unfortunately, they weren’t designed with security in mind. That’s because each NoSQL database was intended to be a part of a larger parent system that handled security needs.
Ideally, a NoSQL will be integrated into a framework with data security features. In the meantime, the servers must be monitored constantly to prevent data breaches whenever data is transmitted as well as during storage.
Servers Must Be Secured Immediately in the Event of a Data Breach
Despite all your best efforts and even with the help of an exceptional managed services provider, no network is absolutely guaranteed to avoid every attack. Threats to your servers and the data they handle can come from many sources, including intrusion by high-tech hackers and mistakes, fraud, or sabotage by employees.
When a breach happens, it’s imperative that the network is secured as quickly as possible. Since the servers are at the heart of the network, they need to be attended to immediately to minimize potential or actual damage to your system, data, and reputation.
The Data Is Useless Unless Your Business Can Access It
While it’s crucial to keep big data secure, your system also needs to allow you to access, use, and benefit from the data. Otherwise, what’s the point? And, what business would waste their time, money, and effort to get into big data in the first place if there were no possible payoff? The only way a sensible businessowner or manager would even consider it is if there’s a way to manage privacy without losing access to the data.
So, how do you balance privacy and usability? Through proper server management, your managed services provider can fine-tune your server and its processes so that you can do both jobs incredibly well.
In the age of big data, server management is more critical than ever before. As you gather, analyze, and use massive amounts of data from nearly limitless and varied sources, you accept responsibility in protecting the privacy of all the individuals involved. You need to have powerful privacy protections without slowing down your servers. You need to prevent breaches and be prepared to deal with them if they happen. With proper server management, you can do all this and still get amazing benefits from big data.
If you’re using big data now or gearing up to begin, then it’s the perfect time to ensure your servers are up to the task with a server and network assessment. To get started, contact JMARK for a consultation with our business technology strategy experts.
Call us at 844-44-JMARK or email us at jmarkit@JMARK.com. You can also use our Contact Us page on this website. JMARK is a leading managed services provider with headquarters in Springfield, Missouri and offices in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Fayetteville, Arkansas. We assist businesses throughout the nation with comprehensive I.T. services designed to improve, protect, and maintain all your company’s computer systems.
