Intelligent Tech Channels Issue 16 | Page 33

INTELLIGENT CLOUD Cloud service providers must embrace availability Many of the big-ticket breaches could have been avoided if data backup provisions using cloud service providers were more robust, explains Mohamad Rizk at Veeam. A t the back end of 2017, every publication or news outlet with an interest in technology published their biggest and best of lists. Included were things like innovations, software solutions and games. As well, of course, as hacks. This year’s biggest breach articles were an unfortunate roll call of technology giants and prominent cloud providers, from IBM and Apple, to GitLab and AWS. CNN termed 2017 the year that nothing seemed safe, as it explored how businesses and public sector organisations alike were let down by security failings. While Uber, understanding the public scrutiny that cyberattacks attract, tried to pay off its hackers, only to cause further problems. The growing issue for tech firms is that most of these lists and round- ups go beyond discussing financial losses that reach into the hundreds of millions. They also readily showcase the potential fallibilities of cloud. And how vulnerabilities in cloud services and businesses can disturb the working lives of customers across the world. Every single time a cloud outage happens, end users are let down, service is disrupted and reputations are damaged. So as cloud changes and becomes an integral part of the ecosystem of every 33